Among the main sources of law in countries belonging to the Romano-German system include a legal act. This form is relevant for Russia as a state of the continental family.
A normative legal act is a title document adopted in the prescribed manner by the competent authority. It contains binding rules of conduct for all.
A normative legal act fulfills the function of a regulator of public relations, fixing binding establishments for all. Instructions of this type differ in legal force: mainly, it depends on the type of the competent authority - the author of the official document.
Thus, the law is adopted by the supreme authority or through free will of the people. A normative legal act of this type regulates the most significant social relationships. By legal force, these documents are superior only to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and the laws themselves are divided into federal and federal constitutional. The latter are accepted on the most important issues and are hierarchically superior to the former. The FKZ is adopted if the legislator is obliged to do so by the text of the Constitution. As a rule, these documents specify and disclose the provisions of the basic law.
The Federal Law is adopted in strict accordance with the Federal Law and the Constitution and contains provisions aimed at regulating certain areas of social life.
No regulatory act may contradict the law. All documents with less legal force must comply with the Constitution and federal regulations.
Regional authorities may also issue acts within their powers. Documents of title shall not contradict prescriptions located higher in the hierarchy. Acts of the organs of the subjects are valid within the region.
The law does not classify local government as state power. But this does not mean that the municipal authorities cannot issue normative acts. On the contrary, the law authorizes the local authorities to regulate issues of local importance through the adoption and promulgation of relevant official documents.
Organizations, within their competence and to establish internal order, also create certain requirements. So, the charters, orders, decisions (and documents of other forms) of the management are valid only within the enterprise.
There is also an industry classification. A normative legal act may contain norms governing different types of relations: criminal, administrative, constitutional, civil, etc. Legal regulations relating to the listed areas are codified. But there are also generally binding documents regulating narrower areas of social life. Such norms, as a rule, are dispersed in various acts; they are united in institutions and sub-sectors of law.
Obligatory state and municipal regulations must be distinguished, for example, from acts of application of law that are of an individual nature and oblige a specific person to fulfill the requirement specified by the document.