All documents according to the laws of the system of law and legislation are valid in a limited territory for a limited period of time. This helps to distinguish the effect of some laws from others, which eliminates confusion and complexity in practice. It is important to understand such a component as the effect of legal acts in space, which defines the territorial boundaries of the law. This is relevant in times of contradictions or conflicts of acts of various levels, and also, when it comes to international law. We proceed to consider such a phenomenon, determining its essence and features.
What is a legal act?
It is understood as such a document that is officially legally binding, issued by the competent authority having the right to do so, and it also contains certain rules relating to a specific sphere of life or the field of public relations. The document must be in writing, in a specific form and structure. Required details and signatures of a competent person. Only certain authorities and their employees can issue, amend or repeal the law. This right is not granted to all citizens of our state. For convenience, the theory of law distinguishes the effect of legal acts in time, space and in a circle of persons. We will analyze the second category in more detail, our article is devoted to it.
Action in space
This phenomenon implies that the document is recognized as valid in the territory on which there is the sovereignty and power of our state, as well as on which special rights, duties and powers of certain categories of citizens of the Russian Federation (ambassadors, consuls) apply. That is why, as a general rule, documents issued by such bodies, whose work concerns the federal level - throughout Russia, acts of subjects - at the level of regions, territories or republics, and documents of a narrower effect - within a district, city or other small entity.
The concept of state territory
The effect of a normative legal act in space is defined by the concept of "state territory". This is part of the planet - the subsoil, the earth's surface, water, atmosphere and other air layers located above. This part of the planet should be under the sovereignty of a particular state, we now mean the territory of the Russian Federation. Note that the effect of normative legal acts in space allows the spread of the law on the territory of embassies that are located in other states, warships on the high seas, ships flying in space and other objects that are in water, air or on land.
Depending on what the action is, all documents are divided into those that work throughout the country, in a certain part, or in the territory of a foreign state.
Documents distributed throughout the Russian Federation
Considering the effect of a normative legal act in space, this category is the most common. Its feature is that the law applies to all citizens, and all territories and subjects of our state are subordinate to it. No matter what region, territory or republic it is, what part of our state - the law will act equally for everyone. The main law of our state is the Constitution, which refers to this category of laws. Many federal laws, for example, on enforcement proceedings, on the prosecutor’s office are examples illustrating the effect of regulatory legal acts in space, namely throughout the entire Russian Federation.
Acts covering a separate part of the country
In this type of laws, there are two main situations:
- The first is the distribution of the document in the territory of a certain part of the state - for example, the Far North, the Far East. There are separate laws that apply to citizens of these parts of Russia - they have special conditions for calculating pensions, benefits, payments, working conditions and more. An example will also be decrees and other acts concerning the victims of the Chernobyl disaster.
- The second concerns a geographically limited area. The scope of a normative legal act in space is outlined by the territory of the subject of Russia. That is, there are laws, orders or decrees that operate in the territory of the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk region or various republics. They cannot apply to other entities and should not contradict the laws of the Russian Federation.
The effect of Russian laws in foreign countries
On the territory of a foreign state, Russian laws may also apply. The grounds for the action of normative legal acts in space in this case will be international treaties, agreements between states. The laws apply unambiguously on the territory of Russian embassies in other states, on different ships, liners and other objects. There are cases when ordinary citizens are subject to state agreements, this applies to the financial, commercial or civil branches of law. This category of laws is clearly and thoroughly worked out by states and is in dynamics.
Local acts
On the territory of each large institution, enterprise or organization, its own charters, regulations or other local acts apply . Their distinguishing feature is the limited territory, that is, they operate in only one enterprise, can apply to all branches, but can no longer be applied to other organizations. Many jurists do not pay due attention to this category of laws when dividing laws by their action in space.
It is very important to understand the effect of each law and to know in which territory it applies. Moreover, if a citizen is a resident of one subject and has a residence permit there, then when moving to another subject, certain rights and guarantees of the new subject will not apply to him. In the case of a change of registration and the appearance of a place of residence in a new subject, a citizen is covered by the whole range of rights and freedoms at the place of registration.