The Legal Regulation of Digital Rights in Russian Jurisdiction

The study analyzes the legal regulation of category "digital rights" introduced by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in Art. 141.1 in Russia. The author reveals the general theoretical content of the category of digital rights and digital law in Russia. Digital rights can be considered by modern science from several angles - 1) in the public law aspect, as digital rights of the individual, 2) through the prism of the content of the definition in the civil law, 3) in the narrow sense by considering individual institutions of digitalization - tokens, cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, distributed ledger technology. The author's definition of digital rights is presented. A comparative analysis of the Russian concept of digital rights with the leading foreign legal orders is carried out. The author comes to the conclusion that the Russian state should borrow in some aspects the experience of foreign legal orders, since, for example, in the UK digital rights of the individual are regulated in much more detail, to which practically no attention is paid in Russia. In particular, attention should be paid to the digital rights of children as one of the most vulnerable categories of citizens. The place of digital rights in the system of civil legal regulation is determined. The author believes that digital rights in their totality can be considered as an independent civil legal object, since they regulate special property relations that arise in the information environment, are created and used there, as well as expressed in a special digital form. Individual institutions of digitalization are being investigated - blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, tokens and smart contracts. Several prospects for the development of blockchain technology in Russia in the near future have been identified, in particular, in the tax area, healthcare, copyright and database management. It is concluded that it is necessary to legalize cryptocurrency as a legal tender on the territory of the Russian Federation, and several priority tasks on the way to reforms are given, which the legislator should take into account. The features of the content and application of smart contracts, as well as the specifics of the use of smart contracts in Russia based on blockchain technology have been identified now, without the use of cryptocurrency.