Seminar on the Special Legal Modes of Turin

Through the 16th and 17th of February, Head of the Laboratory Alexey Ivanov and a number of colleagues from development institutions and state authorities held a seminar with Italian partners for brainstorming on the creation of special juridical systems.

About the joint brainstorm and the in-depth discussion on the issues of the special laws and administrative modes, this area has been spurred into development since December, when the Laboratory was visited by the Rector of the University of Turin, Gianmaria Ajani. 

In Turin, as well as Ivanov, Vladimir Solodov the Director of Projects & Practice Department at the Young Professionals Directive of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives made the trip, as did entrepreneur Alexander Monastyrev, the Head of the Department of the Ministry of Development for the Russian Far East Andrei Demidov and the Scientific Director of the Laboratory Leopold Specht.

Flanking the hosts, split over two days, were Mariagrazia Pellerino and Stefano Lo Russo presented, the Deputy Mayors for Education and Urban Planning, and Mr Ajani and his team - Professor Silvio Aime and Federico Bussolino, the Vice Rectors for Research and Technology Transfer, and Sergio Bortolani, Vice Rector for International Relations.

There was discussion of the legal modes linked to a specific project, which Ivanov and colleagues presented, namely the legal segregation of Russky Island into separate legal and economic zones, on the principle of 'one state, two models'. Many countries in the Asia-Pacific region have successfully employed the practice of providing different areas with special regulatory regimes. They allow states to develop infrastructure in 'turbo mode', actively involve business in public administration, reduce bureaucratic ceilings, and generally permit an entity to work in a selected area as efficiently as possible. In recent years, the proliferation of special economic zones has borne fruit; 130 states have provided more than 3,500 special zones, which involve more or less 40 million people.

The government declaration of rapid socio-economic development for the Far East requires an extraordinary system of solutions. The theoretical and practical model of creating 'special conditions for development' in countries with non-Anglo-Saxon law systems is the right stepping stone. However, implementation of the concept will require extensive analysis and of course, international consultations. The Laboratory task force will maintain dialogue with foreign counterparts to assess the various options for the legal devices of special zones, their institutions, and the best practices for creating such zones.