Abstract: This article reviews the relevant issue of civil law regulation in the sphere of freight transportation. China is seeking for new safe routes for freight transportation to the European market, including sea routes, giving preference to the Northern Silk Road. The subject of this research is the comprehension of individual provisions of the Chinese legislation that are specific to both Russian and international law. The object of this research is the determination of peculiarities of the law of the sea, namely the question of limitation of liability for maritime claims in civil law of the People's Republic of China. Special attention is given to the aspect of harmonization of the norms of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China and the Merchant Shipping Code the Russian Federation in this issue. The acquired results demonstrate the shared interest of the two countries lies in the routes of the Northern Sea Road, which actualizes the problem of harmonization of legislation. The government of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China declare the need for harmonization of legal norms that regulate merchant shipping. Leaning on one of the normative fragments related to joint maritime operations along the routes of the Northern Silk Road, the author concludes that further development of cooperation and expansion of the list of bilateral issues of normative legal regulation in this sphere requires a collective plan aimed at harmonization of legislation based on the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation.

Abstract: Today, the Arctic is viewed as a popular object of competition in the military and political ambitions, additional deposit of mineral resources, or a new international transportation highway, where diminishing ice sheet is perceived as a benefit. However, the decreasing ice means decreased cache of fresh water, the rights to which are not legislatively defined, though the significance of this resource is not lesser than the hydrocarbons of the Arctic shelf.  The subject of this research is the norms of international law regulating the extraction of the glacier water from the natural environment and expanding the covering the property rights. The object of this research is the legal relations stemming from the stipulations of international treaties and national legislation that form the legal regime of exploitation of fresh water resources in glacier formations in the Arctic territories. The main conclusion of the conducted research consists in the fact that the object of glacier water storage are a part of natural resources, and can be covered by property rights, volume of which depends on the legal regime of the area of their extraction. The current international law does not establish the legal regime for appropriation and further exploitation of “objects of glacier water storage” and does not provide obvious foundation for extension of property rights to the aforementioned objects. The author’s contribution to the research of this topic consists in the combination of positions that can form juridical content of the concept of “objects of glacier water storage” and regulation of appropriation of these objects.