State Capitalism and the Intervention of Public Law in Civil Legislation (using the example of special investment agreements)

The article explores the question of how legal tools are used in our state to implement the idea of state capitalism. Despite the wide range of legal means by which the state directs budgetary investments and private investments into the economy, the authors focus on special investment agreements. These contractual models are derived from the bosom of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and their regulation is enshrined in special investment laws. Based on the analysis of these laws, the author concludes that, despite declarative reservations about the application of the norms of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation to these contracts, the real regulation consists in the formation of a new sphere of contract law based on imperative principles that do not allow the parties to form contractual terms. In this regard, the principle of freedom of contract in investment relations with the participation of the state turns out to be a declaration, since a private entity is free only in one thing: to conclude an investment contract or not. Thus, when regulating special investment agreements, there is an intervention of public law norms in the field of civil legislation. Given the fact that budgetary investments dominate the domestic economy, there is reason to assert that with the help of special investment agreements, the state implements the idea of state capitalism. At the same time, such an economic policy, which is embodied in a system of special investment laws introducing new contractual models, leads to the need to recognise both at the doctrinal and law-making levels the formation of a system of “investment contract law”, a fundamentally different contractual law enshrined in the Civil Code. In this case, it will be possible to talk about the effectiveness of regulation only if the “investment contract law” formulates common principles, institutions and legal regimes characteristic of this area of relations.