Normative acts are ... Legal act. Types of normative acts

What is the system of legal regulation? What are its features in Russia and what is the normative legal acts in Russian legal practice?

What is a normative act?

Normative acts are written sources of law. Among its main features are the formal details (the date of adoption, the name, the name of the body that adopted the act, etc.), the fact of approval by a certain structure (authority or corporation), publicity (including through placement in publicly available print and electronic media ).

For normative acts issued by government bodies, publication in the state language is characteristic. Other important signs of acts - they have specific rules of law concerning the regulation of certain types of processes or involving a narrow circle of persons.

"Normative" and "legal" acts - are not the same?

Some lawyers identify the term in question with the notion of "legal act". In this case, both terms are used simultaneously, through a hyphen. Other experts in the field of jurisprudence 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 government - the President, the State Duma, etc.). They should not conflict with other acts of rank higher (such as the Constitution).

A legal act is defined as a broader concept. They can be any documents having legal significance. For example, these are files intended for internal use within the corporation. That is, their availability does not imply legal norms that are mandatory for use by people outside the firm. The prescriptions contained in such documents are addressed to a specific subject (department, official, etc.).

It turns out that the normative and legal acts differ in the following criteria. First, this is the nature of their application. Normative acts - universal, legal - have an individual focus. Secondly, this is the scope of the acts. Normative are addressed to an unlimited number of entities, legal - to a specific circle of persons. Thirdly, this is the time of action of the acts. Normative acts until they are canceled or corrected. Legal, as a rule, are intended for application in specific situations, often single-handed.

Among lawyers there is one more point of view on the relationship between normative and legal acts. It implies that the normative act creates legal norms (or makes changes and additions to existing ones), and the legal one is a tool for the correct implementation of this norm.

What are the acts

Let's see what kinds of normative acts there are in the Russian legal practice. Their distinction is based on the subordination of two concepts. The first is the "law". The act of this type is taken solely by the authorities (legislative or representative) or citizens of the country through a referendum. To mark or amend the law can only be issued by the authority that issued it. Acts of this type are designed to regulate key processes related to the development of the state and society. They contain primary norms: other types of acts detail and interpret the regulatory guidelines set out in the laws. These types of acts are accepted with obligatory observance of a procedural order.

The second concept is "by-laws". They are published on the basis and for the purpose of enforcing laws and constitute a hierarchically aligned model in which the norms should correspond to those prescribed in sources of greater legal force and be the basis for acts of a lower level. The main types of normative acts of subordinate nature in Russia are as follows.

These are general 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, statutes, as well as laws adopted by the legislative and executive authorities of the region). These are municipal laws (orders, decisions or decisions taken by mayoralties, city councils and similar structures).

A special kind of normative acts is international laws. They are accepted by organizations outside of Russian jurisdiction and are divided into two types - directives that give the government of specific countries the choice of how to implement the accepted international obligations and decisions, where there are binding requirements for direct fulfillment by all states. The Constitution of Russia says that the principles and norms characteristic of international law and the treaties of the Russian Federation with other states are part of the national legal system. And if a treaty with another country establishes rules different from those prescribed in laws adopted in Russia, then an international legal source is vested with a higher legal force .

Law and Act: the relationship of terms

The terms "act" and "law" are often identified by lawyers. This is true, but only in one case: if "by law" is understood to be those developed by society through political institutions or directly by prescriptions, mandatory for all or a certain category of persons. Specific acts are either written sources of prescriptions in question, or documents clarifying the nuances of their execution.

The law is a set of normative acts, all that is in the state, or concerning a certain sphere - for example, laws on the family. Normative acts are laws in the legal sense as such. Historically, it was preceded by a phenomenon such as a legal custom. But as the contradictions between the customs of different nations, countries and continents were revealed, the norms fixed in the acts began to be established, which could bring traditional, "folk" rules that are different from each other to a single standard. Laws and regulations in terms of modern legal terminology can be synonymous.

Levels of normative acts

The effect of regulations can be extended at several levels. There are acts federal - they are mandatory for execution throughout the 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 propiska and even citizenship) who come to the subject or temporarily reside there. There are municipal legal acts, which apply to residents of the city, district or district, as well as those arriving there. There are, finally, local legal acts - their peculiarity in a narrow focus (they can regulate the activities of the department, corporation or some official).

Federal laws

Federal normative acts are sources of law that are approved in a special order. They are endowed with the highest legal force in relation to regional, municipal and local right acts. Federal laws have a subspecies in the form of acts of a constitutional nature, which have a higher legal force (above - only the Constitution of the Russian Federation). This subspecies of laws is adopted with a view to the correct interpretation and development of the norms contained in the Constitution. They are designed to help ensure that subjects of civil law have every opportunity to implement the law of freedom.

Municipal legal acts

Each Russian municipality has the right to issue its own normative acts. This is the main tool of local government. Here are some examples of such acts. This may be the procedure for implementing certain powers transferred to the executive body of the municipality from the city administration. For example, the Moscow mayor's office can delegate Mitino's authority in the sphere of cultural and educational work with citizens.

It may be a decision to approve any of the Regulations, the responsibility for the implementation of which will lie with the municipality. For example, the Meshchanskoye district council in Moscow can approve the Regulation on how the practical tasks on family development will be carried out, in accordance with the Moscow City Law "On the allocation of certain powers in the field of guardianship and guardianship to local government bodies ". Municipalities can approve various programs for the development of infrastructure and social profile areas.

Local Normative Acts

Let us recall the reasoning, which we did above, which concerns the delineation of the concepts "normative" and "legal" act. According to some lawyers, the sources of the second type include documents of any non-state (not related to authorities) character. The most common example of such acts is documents that are in circulation of corporations. They have several characteristics. First, they are accepted by the company. Secondly, they have rules of law. Thirdly, they have an orientation: under the prescriptions given in the document, the whole organization falls into the category, or its separate structure (or several). Examples of such legal acts: the staff schedule, the schedule of holidays, the order about the statement of settlement sheets. The effect of regulations has clear signs of localization.

Western and Eastern traditions of lawmaking

Speaking about the normative and legal acts, it should be noted that there are two historically developed approaches to their drafting. Western, characteristic for Europe and to a certain extent for Russia, and eastern, characteristic for the countries of the Persian Gulf, 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 norms of law, other acts may be sufficiently free from hierarchy relative to each other, but must necessarily correspond to the imperative source of law.

The main problems of the Russian system of law

Some lawyers say that the Russian legal system tends toward the Western tradition. This is confirmed by the fact that each normative legal act is at a certain level - obeying legally stronger norms or repairing oneself that are weaker. At the same time, as noted by a number of experts in Russian society, there is much from the East - neglect of prescribed rules and norms, orientation to traditions. In the minds of many Russians, normative acts are only "pieces of paper".

At the same time, there is another pole in the society - the so-called "legal idealists", striving to follow the law to the letter. As a result, Russia does not yet have a single public standard for understanding the legal system.

Lawmaking

How are normative and legal acts created? The law - who does it spell? The creation of normative acts is often called lawmaking, and there are several basic ways to implement this procedure. Firstly, it is the law-making work of state bodies. Secondly, it is the legitimization (legitimization) of the power of legal customs that existed for a long time. Thirdly, this is law-making through direct democracy (for example, through a referendum). Lawyers call a number of main principles of lawmaking - planning, expediency, systemic, democratic.

Legal technology as part of the legal system

Normative acts are sources of law, which by definition can not be perfect, if only because society is changing, developing. In order for the acts to be as close as possible to the realities, various types of legal techniques are used - means, methods and mechanisms for improving sources of law. The main task of lawyers working in this direction is to make laws as clear as possible for people, literate, transparent. In laws of different levels that regulate one sphere, a clear logical relationship must be traced. There are four main types of legal techniques - law-making, systematizing, accounting and law enforcement. Normative acts of the Russian Federation, lawyers believe, should be improved within each type of techniques.

How laws work

In different countries there are national guidelines on how laws work. In Russia, this mechanism is described in the Constitution (Article 54). What does it say? First, the fact that no law that establishes responsibility or aggravates it can not have retroactive effect. Secondly, no one is responsible for the actions that at the time of the commission were not an offense in terms of current norms of law. Third, if after committing an action falling under the article of the law, new, softer rules are adopted, then they are applied. In turn, invariably common for all countries, the principles of the operation of laws - focus on time, space and a specific range of individuals (if it's not about society as a whole).