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Abstract. Summary. Based on the principle that the intensification of people mobility and societies configurations differentiation is the ongoing process de facto in societies living under democratic values , reaction to the dynamism of the plurality in societies is one of the most urgent problems in the contemporary world.
Focusing on this problem and trying to find answers for it, the author of this article created a unique model: KSAK model. KSAK is the abbreviation in Lithuanian of the phrase “The four “table legs” for consensus” (Keturios “stalo atramos” konsensusui). The objective of this model is to provide strong premises for the pursuit of consensus. In pluralistic societies, where living individuals differently perceive and react to reality, social cohesion cannot be sought through universalism. In this case, this cohesion can be reached only by compromise, by pursuit of consensus.
The KSAK model consists of four main affirmations. These affirmations raised by the KSAK model require being analyzed and confirmed empirically and theoretically, being a strong base for the model, and consequently, to the “table” for consensus it might have a firm basis. Therefore, the goal of this article is to analyze the affirmations of the new model created by the author of this article, through various sociological perspectives, namely through the modern and postmodern sociological theory. For this, as a representative of modern sociology, functionalism of Émile Durkheim was chosen. As representatives of postmodern sociology, liquid modernity of Zygmunt Bauman and theory of complexity of Edgar Morin were chosen.
For the accomplishment of this work various theoretical literatures, mainly Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English, were analyzed.

Abstract. Various interest-driven groups and communities emerge due to human creativity, creative efforts of individuals, contemporary information sharing culture and accumulation of knowledge through networking. Meanwhile, constant innovations give impetus to the development of societal life and its multiple dimensions. The greatest change in education brought by the new technologies, which are still becoming more and more social in their nature, is the emergence of the new paradigm, where the two – learning and teaching – processes have become one. Creativity cannot be separated from knowledge building in contemporary society. This article focuses on creativity in relation to networked learning/teaching and the development of deeper cognitive skills of students and draws on three viewpoints from contemporary research literature pertaining to the phenomenon of creativity: Czikszentmihalyi’s systems theory, the investment theory developed by Sternberg and Lubart and a group of viewpoints focusing on problem solving and finding. In relation to networked learning/teaching and the development of deeper cognitive skills at university level, creativity may be seen as related to critical literacy – critical reading and writing skills, analytical skills, ability to make judgements about texts, ability to create texts (printed, digital, visual, multimodal, etc.) as well as ability to apply the acquired information and skills in everyday life, work and task performance in order to implement changes in one’s social environment. In Web 2.0 era, the new social technologies supply multiple tools for creation, publication, assessment and critique. The tools are very important in education. Higher education institutions face the necessity to make use of the opportunities offered by the technologies so that they remain relevant for students, who need a range of skills to be successful in contemporary society: digital literacy, media literacy, critical literacy, collaboration and communication skills, unlearning old skills and re-learning new skills, i.e. what is often referred to as multiple literacies of the 21st century.

Abstract. The analysis of creative industries and, in particular, the specificity of managing creative companies require not only understanding of concepts, such as the creativity, arts and business, but also understanding of creative industries in a broader sense, which varies from one country to another; thus, to get a comprehensive image of creative industries, various classifications, activities and further development possibilities should be examined. There should be the international trade in creative goods and services and its added-value scrutinized. A proportionally large part of this publication is oriented to the analysis of data regarding the demand for arts in global markets and the international trade, as well as the evaluation of contributions of arts to economy, its profitability, regional growth trends, employment and increasing competition among local companies. The research question of the present article is as follows: are development and management of companies that belong to creative industries efficient, and what specific management characteristics could be identified among Lithuanian fashion design companies? To get pertinent research results, a descriptive qualitative study was selected with semi-structured interviews in use to better understand respondents and to obtain more and deeper information on management-related questions.

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to compare images of Shakespeare in the novel “Nothing like the Sun. A Story of Shakespeare’s Love Life” (1964) by the English writer Anthony Burgess and in the stories “The Dark Lady”, “The Second Quality Bed” and “The Royal Rescript” (1969) by the Russian writer Jurij Dombrovskij. Distinctions of the images are explained, first of all, by the different literary tradition and poetics of realism and modernism accordingly. Similarities speak of the commonality of the tendencies in the European historical and literary process of the 20th century, and also of the creative biography of writers, their aversion of totalitarianism and aspiration to create an image of a free person. The fundamental complexity is to create the image of the historic figure in general and Shakespeare in particular. It is as though shrouded by the foggy veil through which we can rather see the features of Burgess and Dombrovskij themselves than of the Stratford playwright that remains a riddle for readers.

Abstract. The present paper refers to the formation and development of forestry education and science in the Russian Empire during the mid-18th – mid-19th centuries. Given the progressive interest in environmental protection, forest resources and the historical study of this problem, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of analyzing the whole range of issues related to the problem. The relevance of the topic is not only connected with its topicality, but also with its scarce study and the fact that it has an educational character. The article renders the influence of Western European countries on this process and a characteristic of forestry education in some Western European countries. The author analyzed various sources and literature on the topic of research and attempted to restore the stages of origin, formation and development of forestry education and science in the Russian Empire in the mid-18th – mid-19th centuries, as well as the changes in introducing and applying the Western European patterns into practice.

Abstract. This article demonstrates how regional institutions in Southeast Asia help solving common problems (political, security, economic, environmental, social, cultural, ect.), form common rules, norms and customs for cooperation, create the agreed agendas for regional issue management. In the article, using a neo-liberal institutionalism approach, it has been ascertained what factors influence the effectiveness of the selected intergovernmental regional institutions in Southeast Asia, facilitate the regional response and reaction to common regional (economic, security, political, social) challenges. Regional agenda usually depends on actors, regional order (power structure within the region) as well as on regional identity. Institutions legitimate the region, but on the other hand, regional identity legitimates institutions.
Theoretical paradigm in the article is neo-liberalism. Two requirements should be fulfilled in order for neo-liberal institutionalism to be aplicable: (1) there should be common interests (as gains are achieved through cooperation), (2) it is required that variations in the degree of institutionalization would exert substantial effects on the state’s policy.
The article analyzes how regional institutions in Southeast Asia form the possibility for the region to emerge as a single actor in the international system. Analysis of multi-purpose regional institutions in ASEAN demonstrates how organization serves the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of transactions among states, but the ambiguity in them also functions as a tool to manage distribution of power.

Abstract. Actions by Egyptian Defense Minister on July 3rd, 2013 raised a question on what sort of means secure democratic military control and whether a democratic state can limit and control the use of force in a democratic manner. For this reason, in comparison with constitutional provisions of other states that embody different forms of government, this article analyses the constitutional status of a state leader as a head of military forces that was infixed in the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt of December 26th, 2012, and also what constitutional fundamentals existed for Egyptian Defense Minister to perform actions on July 3rd, 2013, or to prevent these actions from materializing.
The process that at the moment is in action in Egypt is an important test for democracy, which up until now the state has been having trouble to pass. When looking at the state government system provisioned by the Constitution of the Arab Republicof Egypt of December 26th, 2012, it becomes clear that the Constitution lacks more visible balance of power, which in turn creates the lack of democracy. Various military councils and military forces are equal to other three state powers (legislative, executive and judicial), but in a democratic country, military institutions of the state cannot be ascribed to state government institutions and furthermore have a priority over them. On the contrary, military state institutions must be liable to civil state institutions and must be controlled by them, and their decisions must be based on decisions by civil state institutions.
Actions by Egyptian Defense Minister on July 3rd, 2013 were performed in breach of constitutional provisions that were set by the nation to live in accordance with, and this Constitution was validated in a referendum. According to the Constitution, Defense Minister is not the Protector of the Constitution; furthermore, no right is provisioned for him to terminate the validity of the Constitution. The Egyptian Constitution does not provide the Defense Minister with a right to dismiss the President of the Republic from the office and to appoint a constitutional jurisdiction judge to a temporary President office. What is more, it was possible to solve a political crisis apparent in a country and to avoid breaches of the Constitution by implementing other constitutional means (noconfidence, impeachment or election institutions).

Abstract. The principle of loyal cooperation established in the EU law obliges the courts of the Member States of the EU to ensure the effective judicial protection of rights of persons stemming from the EU law. In the absence of harmonized norms of the civil procedure at the EU level, national courts are procedurally autonomous in enforcing judicial protection of the above mentioned rights, however, in applying national laws they shall comply with principles of equivalence and effectiveness of the EU law. In cases concerning violation of rights stemming from the EU law, courts of the Member States are faced with applications for the indication of provisional measures necessary to ensure effective judicial protection. The European Court of Justice treats such provisional measures as an integral part of the right to effective judicial protection. Compliance with the principle of effective judicial protection of the EU law requires national laws to guarantee the right to obtain provisional measures before national courts. In the light of the case law of the European Court of Justice, two situations where application of provisional measures may be granted by national judges shall be distinguished: (i) the first case concerns the suspension of the application of national laws incompatible with EU law pending decision on such compatibility, and (ii) the second one deals with the suspension of application of national measures implementing EU legal acts pending the decision on validity of such EU legal act. Under the first type of situations, national courts shall apply procedural guarantees embodied in the national laws. Under the second one, the ECJ has spelled out minimum uniform conditions making judicial protection effective: national procedural rules shall satisfy the principle of equivalence and the principle of effectiveness. In practice, a problem is frequently faced when such kind of provisional measures in not expressis verbis embodied in the text of national law. This hinders the right of the parties concerned to make use of such provisional measures significantly. Such hindrances limit the right of the parties concerned to effective judicial protection and may lead to violation of the EU law.
For instance, The Code of Civil Procedure of Lithuania does not provide for special rules concerning suspension of national legal provisions in the above-mentioned situations. However, bearing in mind that the Court of Justice recognized the right to obtain interim measures before national courts to be an integral part of the EU concept of direct, immediate and effective judicial protection, national court should have the right to grant such provisional measures. Therefore, it is submitted that it would be appropriate for the national legislator of Lithuania to resolve the question on filling this gap in national legal system.

Abstract. The paper presents the concept of the third party beneficiary as a specific contractual party, as well as the discussion upon the legal status of the beneficiary. Depending upon the actual situation, the third party beneficiaries are divided into three categories: incidental beneficiary (a person, who gets benefit from the contract accidentally or favor has not been considered by the original parties of the contract during the formulation of the contract); express beneficiary (a person explicitly named as a beneficiary in the contract); implicit beneficiary (a person, who’s right to benefit can be derived from the true will of the original parties and the circumstances, though his right was not expressly worded in the contract).
The mandatory requirements to the formulation of contractual clause in favor of the third party are also comprehensively described in the paper. The main instance for a valid stipulation is the identifiability. The beneficiary must be identified with sufficient certainty at the time of performance of the clause. This statement refers to the main European contract law documents: UNIDROIT principles of international commercial law and The Principles of European Contract Law.
The meaning of the beneficiaries will upon the vesting of a contractual right is also discussed in this paper. The beneficiary right actually arises at the moment of either stipulation in his or her favor or only after he or she accepts the clause. It depends on the doctrine that applies in the jurisdiction. The most common “confirmation” doctrine as well as a more seldom “acceptance” doctrine are overviewed in the paper in order to give a full picture of the third party beneficiary position over jurisdictions of Europe.

Abstract. The Relationship between Perceived Fairness of Judge’s Behavior, His Decision and Personality Traits

Abstract.Polemic article. Academies of Hatred

Abstract. Book Review. On Values Within the Context of Future Challenges