What is a legal regulation system? What are its features in Russia and what are regulatory legal acts in Russian legal practice?
What is a normative act?
Normative acts are sources of law fixed in writing . Among its main features are the formal nature of the details (date of adoption, name, name of the body that adopted the act, etc.), the fact of approval by a certain structure (government or corporation), publicity (including by posting in publicly available print and electronic media) )
For normative acts issued by authorities, publication in the state language is characteristic. Other important signs of acts - they have specific legal norms relating to the regulation of processes of a certain type or with the participation of a narrow circle of people.
Are “normative” and “legal” acts not the same thing?
Some lawyers identify the term in question with the concept of “legal act”. In this case, both terms are used simultaneously, through a hyphen. Other legal experts believe that these two phenomena are not exactly the same thing. Their theses are as follows. Normative acts are only official documents (issued by the authorities - the President, the State Duma, etc.). They should not be in conflict with other acts of a rank higher (such as the Constitution).
A legal act is defined as a broader concept. They can be any documents of legal significance. For example, these are files intended for official use within the corporation. That is, their presence does not imply legal norms binding on people outside the company. The instructions contained in such documents are addressed to a specific subject (department, official, etc.).
It turns out that normative and legal acts differ according to the following criteria. The first is the nature of their application. Normative acts - universal, legal - have an individual focus. Secondly, this is the scope of acts. Regulatory addressed to an unlimited number of entities, legal - to a specific circle of persons. Thirdly, this is the duration of the acts. Regulators are valid until canceled or adjusted. Legal, as a rule, are intended for use in specific situations, often once.
Among lawyers, there is another point of view on the relationship of regulatory and legal acts. It implies that a normative act creates legal norms (or makes changes and additions to existing ones), and a legal one is an instrument for the correct implementation of this norm.
What are the acts
Let's see what types of regulatory acts are in Russian legal practice. Their distinction is based on the subordination of two concepts. The first is the "law." An act of this type is adopted exclusively by authorities (legislative or representative) or citizens of the country through a referendum. Only the issuing authority may mark or amend the law. Acts of this type are called upon to regulate key processes related to the development of the state and society. They contain the primary norms: of a different type, acts detail and interpret the regulatory framework set forth in laws. These types of acts are adopted with mandatory observance of the procedural order.
The second concept is “by-laws”. They are issued on the basis of and with the aim of enforcing laws and constitute a hierarchically built model in which the rules must comply with those prescribed in the sources of greater legal force and be the basis for acts below. The main types of regulatory acts of a subordinate nature in Russia are as follows.
These are federal acts (decrees and orders of the President of the Russian Federation, government decrees, orders of ministries and departments). These are acts of the subjects of the federation (local constitutions, charters, as well as laws adopted by the legislative and executive authorities of the region). These are municipal laws (orders, decisions or decrees adopted by city halls, city councils and similar structures).
A special type of regulatory acts is international laws. They are accepted by organizations outside the Russian jurisdiction and are divided into two types - directives that give the government of specific countries the choice of how to implement the adopted international obligations and decrees, where there are requirements for direct implementation by all states. The Russian Constitution states that the principles and norms specific to international law, and treaties of the Russian Federation with other states are part of the national legal system. And if an agreement with another country establishes rules that are different from those prescribed in laws adopted in Russia, then an international source of law is given higher legal force .
Law and act: correlation of terms
The terms “act” and “law” are often identified by lawyers. This is true, but only in one case: if “law” refers to the rules developed by society through political institutions or directly, binding on all or a certain category of persons. Concrete acts are either written sources of the instructions in question or documents explaining the nuances of their implementation.
A law is a combination of normative acts, everything that exists in a state, or related to a certain sphere - for example, family laws. Normative acts are laws in the legal sense as such. Historically, it was preceded by a phenomenon such as legal custom. But as contradictions between the customs of different peoples, countries and continents were revealed, the norms enshrined in the acts began to be established, capable of bringing the traditional, “popular” rules unlike each other to a single standard. Laws and regulations from the point of view of modern legal terminology can be synonyms.
Levels of regulations
Legal acts may extend at several levels. There are federal acts - they are binding on the entire territory of Russia. There are sources of law of the subjects of the federation - they, in turn, apply to residents of certain regions, as well as to all persons (regardless of registration and even citizenship) who come to the subject or temporarily reside in it. There are municipal legal acts, the effect of which applies to residents of a city, county or district, as well as people who come there. Finally, there are local legal acts - their peculiarity is in a narrow focus (they can regulate the activities of a department, corporation, or any official).
Federal laws
Federal regulations - sources of law, which are approved in a special manner. They are endowed with the highest legal force in relation to regional, municipal and local legal acts. Federal laws have a subtype in the form of acts of a constitutional nature that have higher legal force (above - only the Constitution of the Russian Federation). This subtype of laws is adopted in order to correctly interpret and develop the norms contained in the Constitution. They are designed to help ensure that subjects of civil law have every opportunity to realize the freedom provided by law.
Municipal legal acts
Each Russian municipality has the right to issue its own regulations. This is the main tool of local government. Here are some examples of such acts. This may be the procedure for the implementation of certain powers transferred to the executive body of the municipality from the city administration. For example, the Moscow Mayor's Office may delegate to the Mitino district powers in the field of cultural and educational work with citizens.
These may be decisions on the approval of any Regulations, the responsibility for the implementation of which will lie with the municipality. For example, the council of the Meshchansky district in Moscow can approve the Regulation on how practical solutions to problems related to family development will be implemented, according to the Law of Moscow "On empowering local authorities with separate powers in the field of guardianship and trusteeship." Municipalities can approve various programs for the development of infrastructure and social profile of districts.
Local regulations
Recall the reasoning that we made above, which relates to the distinction between the concepts of "normative" and "legal" act. According to some lawyers, sources of the second type include documents of any non-governmental (not related to the authorities) nature. The most common example of such acts are documents that are in the circulation of corporations. They have several symptoms. Firstly, they are accepted by the company itself. Secondly, they have the rule of law. Thirdly, they have a focus: the entire organization or its separate structure (or several) falls under the requirements stated in the document. Examples of such legal acts: staffing schedule, vacation schedule, order on approval of checklists. The action of legal acts has clear signs of localization.
Western and Eastern Legislation Traditions
Speaking of what regulatory and legal acts are, it should be noted that there are two historically established approaches to their preparation. Western, characteristic of Europe and, to a certain extent, Russia, and eastern, characteristic of the Gulf countries, Asia, India and other states in those regions. The key moment for the European tradition is the formal consolidation of acts, the rule of law, legitimacy.
In the East, the main source of law is a tradition based on religious sources. In the West there is a hierarchy of laws, the highest level of which is the Constitution (or a set of norms that replace it). In the East, there is an imperative in the form of traditional rules of law, other acts can be quite free of hierarchy relative to each other, but it must be consistent with the imperative source of law.
The main problems of the Russian legal system
Some lawyers say that the Russian legal system gravitates to the Western tradition. This is confirmed by the fact that each normative legal act is at a certain level - obeying legally stronger standards or repairing ones that are weaker. At the same time, in Russian society, as noted by a number of experts, there is much from the East - neglect of the prescribed rules and norms, focus on traditions. In the minds of many Russians, normative acts are just “pieces of paper”.
At the same time, there is another pole in society - the so-called “legal idealists”, who strive to follow the law to the letter. As a result, Russia does not yet have a single social standard for understanding the legal system.
Lawmaking
How are normative and legal acts created? Law - by whom is it written? The creation of regulations is often referred to as lawmaking, and there are several basic ways to implement this procedure. Firstly, this is the law-setting work of state bodies. Secondly, it is the legitimization (legitimization) of the power of legal customs that have existed for a long time. Thirdly, this is lawmaking through direct democracy (for example, through a referendum). Lawyers name a number of the main principles of lawmaking - planning, expediency, systematicity, democracy.
Legal technology as part of the legal system
Normative acts are sources of law that, by definition, cannot be perfect, if only because society is changing and developing. In order to make the acts as close as possible to the realities, various types of legal techniques are used - means, methods and mechanisms for improving the sources of law. The main task of lawyers working in this direction is to make laws as clear as possible to people, literate, and transparent. In laws of different levels regulating one sphere, a clear logical relationship should be traced. There are four main types of legal techniques - legislative, systematizing, accounting and law enforcement. Laws of the Russian Federation, according to lawyers, should be improved within each type of technique.
How laws work
Different countries have national guidelines on how laws work. In Russia, this mechanism is described in the Constitution (Article 54). What is said there? Firstly, the fact that no law establishing liability or aggravating it can have retroactive effect. Secondly, no one is liable for actions that at the time of the commission were not an offense from the point of view of the current law. Thirdly, if after committing an act falling under the article of the law, new, milder norms are adopted, then they are applied. In turn, the principles of laws that are invariably common to all countries are their focus on time, space and a specific circle of people (if we are not talking about society as a whole).