In order to ameliorate legal regulation of relations in the sphere of science the president of the republic of Belarus on June, 19 2006 signed edict №402 “On several measures to regulate the usage of the word “academia” awarding scientific grades and scientific and academic degrees”.

In accordance with the edict №402 the following organisations possess the right to exploit the word “academia” in their names:

• scientific organizations and educational establishments whose property is state-owned;
• organizations whose official names contain the name of a scientific organization or an educational establishment with state-owned property and having the word “academia” in their official names.

The organizations whose official names or statutory documents do not correlate with the legislative novelty are to pass a re-registration procedure within three months’ time. The procedure (regarding registration fee) is free. The activity of an organization failing to re-register is illegal.

Bestowing academic degrees is an exceptional prerogative of the National Academy of Sciences of the republic of Belarus. Awarding scientific grades and conferring scientific degrees is given to the Supreme Attestation Commission.

The body in charge of execution of the edict №402 of June, 19 2006 is the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. The edict comes into force on the day of its official publishing.

A single question remains, whether it is legal for the metro station to bear the name “The Academy of Sciences” or can a bookshop be named “Akademičnaja kniha (Academic Book)”?