Moscow Office Managing Partner Oxana Balayan moderates the discussion about regulating Russia's digital economy
On 4 April 2019, we hosted a panel discussion "Digitalization! The main events ahead." Our panel was styled after the Vedomosti Legal Forum 2019, which has long established itself as a professional platform for discussing trending legal issues.
We chose the topic of digitalization because it is of concern to all sectors of the economy. Digitalization is progressively penetrating all aspects of our life.
New amendments have been introduced into the Civil Code of the Russian Federation that are focused on digitalization. The State Duma of the Russian Federation has passed a law, in its final and the third reading, introducing into the Civil Code of the Russian Federation the definition of digital rights and provisions regarding smart contracts and big data. This law creates the basis for the regulation of relationships in digital economy.
The panelists discussed the amendments to the law and the impact of digitalization on the every-day work of corporate lawyers and external consultants. Questions raised at the event included: What is the agenda for business society? What is needed from lawyers? What is in store for us in the long run?
The panelists answered these another questions posed by the conference attendees. The panelists included law makers and trendsetters well versed in the use of the state-of-the-art technology.
- Lidiya Mikheeva, performing duties of the Chairman of the Council, S.S. Alekseev Private Law Research Center under the President of the Russian Federation
- Kseniya Usacheva, Head of General Issues of Private Law, S.S. Alekseev Private Law Research Center under the President of the Russian Federation
- Olga Voytovich, Deputy General Director for Legal Affairs, Member of the Board, Interros
- Shagen Melikyan, Legal Director, Sistema Venture Capital
- Alevtina Kamelkova, Partner, law office, Ivanyan & Partners
- Oxana Balayan, Managing partner, Moscow office
The discussion showed that there is still no consensus in the legal community on many issues of digital economy regulation. The Russian legislator has a lot of work to do and we hope that this work will be done in cooperation with representatives of the business community and consultants to ensure that subsequent legislative changes reflect the needs of society in the best possible way.