The role of the legal service in the implementation of the systematization of legislation

Embulaeva Natalia PhD in Law Associate professor, Kuban State Agrarian University named after I.T. Trubilin 350000, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Krasnodar, Kalinina str., 13 nembulaeva@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The activities of public authorities are regulated in detail by legal norms, which enshrine not only the powers of the relevant state and local government bodies, as well as individual officials, but also the procedure for their implementation, as well as the deadlines for completing certain tasks. The need for normative consolidation of these points is dictated by the basic principle of legal statehood – the principle of the rule of law. The functioning of government structures is inextricably linked with the requirements of legality as a mode of existence of the state apparatus. In these conditions, the most important task is to organize the work of government officials in the legal forms of implementation of the functions of the state. The legal service of a public authority or a local government body is called upon to ensure compliance with the rule of law in the activities of the state apparatus.

Legal services can be created both as structural divisions of a government body and as independent legal entities. The tasks of the legal service are very extensive. In the most general form, they consist in the implementation of the following activities:

- handling appeals from citizens and legal entities,

- implementation of claim and claim work,

- representation of the interests of the authority in other state structures,

- implementation of contractual work,

- prevention of offenses,

- fighting corruption-related factors,

- legal support of the activities of a public authority,

- preparation and examination of draft regulatory legal acts and other legal documents,

- systematization and accounting of legal acts of a public authority.

The implementation of systematic accounting and storage of normative legal acts, which are necessary for the activities of the authority, is dictated by the constantly changing nature of the modern legal system. The systematization of normative legal acts is a constant activity of any government agency. If we talk about legislative authorities, they implement in their activities primarily legislative types of systematization: codification and consolidation. The latter is used less and less often, since it is a type of systematization in which a new normative legal act is issued, but its content consists of norms that previously existed in several disparate normative acts and brought together. Dynamically developing social relations require adjustment and updating of legal regulations. Therefore, the leading type of law-making systematization is codification, in which the processing of normative material is carried out, outdated norms of law become invalid, new ones are created, those that still remain relevant are changed. As a rule, branches of law are codified, less often sub-sectors or legal institutions.

In the structure of legislative authorities, separate divisions are often formed, designed to deal with the systematization of legislation. The Department of Legislative Technique and Systematization of Legislation functions in the State Duma of the Russian Federation within the framework of the Legal Department. A department for monitoring legislative initiatives and systematization of legislation has been established in the structure of the Legal Department of the upper house of our Parliament.

Regional legislative authorities are also actively working to systematize legislation and create appropriate divisions in the structure of their legal departments. For example, in the structure of the Legal Department of the Legislative Assembly of the Krasnodar Territory, a department for monitoring and systematization of legislation was created. In general, the functions of systematization, accounting and storage of normative acts fall within the competence of the legal departments of representative authorities. Thus, the Duma of the Stavropol Territory (its Legal Department) keeps records, systematizes and carries out current storage of both incoming legal acts and acts that the Duma itself accepts, as well as organizes and maintains a reference database of normative legal acts of the region.

Many modern researchers note that in the process of codification of legislation, other methods of systematization are also used, which must be used at the initial stages of codification work. "... in this case, incorporation techniques become not a goal, but an auxiliary means of implementing its (right's) fundamental codification" ^[1,145]. In addition, there is a point of view according to which codification cannot be considered only as a method of systematization, its variety or form. Babaev V. K. believes that codification should be considered outside the framework of systematization as "an independent, and the main form of improving legislation" ^[2].

Codification is designed to solve a number of important state tasks. First, it should ensure uniform law enforcement, overcome conflicts and duplication of legal norms, and fill in existing gaps in legal regulation. Secondly, one of the key goals of codification is to develop general provisions and principles for regulating a particular type of public relations. Thirdly, codification should integrate disparate norms, on the one hand, and, on the other, implement their clear differentiation by sub-sectors, institutions and sub-institutions of the legal system. Fourth, the practical significance of codification is to ensure the stability of legal regulation, accessibility and visibility of normative material for all interested legal entities.

Codification activities are also carried out at the level of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, for example, in the Voronezh Region there is an Electoral Code, in Bashkortostan there is an Election Code, a Code of Administrative Offenses, and an Urban Planning Code.

Incorporation and accounting should be attributed to non-law-making types of systematization of legislation. Incorporation is the activity of forming collections of normative legal acts combined according to various criteria (time of publication, the body from which the normative act originates, the legal force of the act, etc.) necessary for the implementation of the activities of a public authority. During incorporation, no new regulatory act is created, and legal regulations are not transformed. Collections are being created that facilitate the work of structural divisions of public authorities.

Accounting is one of the most difficult types of systematization of legislation, since it involves not only collecting regulatory material and storing it, but also maintaining it in a controlled state, as well as creating a convenient system for quickly searching for necessary legal information. Maintenance in a controlled state means the prompt introduction of changes and additions to the texts of normative acts, if they appear, and the formation of new versions of normative acts for the convenience of their use in the practical activities of the authority. The solution to this problem is due to the fact that the law-making body does not always, when accepting changes or additions, issue a new version of the normative legal act, which significantly complicates the activities of entities implementing the legal norm.

The task of accounting, as a type of systematization of legislation, is also the formation of an optimal system for searching legal information by context, document details, its name, date of adoption, as well as the formation of a system of links that quickly find legal acts that detail, clarify certain provisions of the rule of law, determine the procedure for implementing the norm, send for reference information on the practice of implementing this legal regulation.

Currently, the array of legislation at the federal, regional and local levels of government is huge. In this regard, the issue of classification of normative legal acts and the need to create a unified information legal space is becoming relevant. As rightly noted by scientists involved in the construction of a legal classifier, the latter is necessary for a comprehensive coverage of all legal information, to reflect the array of legal acts in their diversity and dynamics ^[3].

Accounting of regulatory legal acts cannot be carried out without the presence of a classifier. It is a methodological basis for any kind of systematization and allows you to get complete, comprehensive information about the availability of legal information. The classifier of legal acts was approved in 2000 by a Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, which emphasized the practical importance of classifying normative legal acts.

In the work of the legal services of public authorities, the classifier is of key importance, since it is they who carry out the work on the preparation of legal acts of the authority, systematization and ensure the effective implementation of law enforcement activities. An Expert Advisory Council on the problems of systematization and codification of legislation has been established in the State Duma of the Russian Federation. His work is related, among other things, to the development of recommendations on the practical use of the legal classifier.

The key task is to ensure that the classification of normative legal acts combines the subject feature of both the sectoral structure of the legal system and branches of legislation. Because there are branches of legislation that do not coincide with the existing branches of law.

In 1995, the head of state announced the task of creating a Code of Laws of the Russian Federation, but it has not yet been prepared. The powers of the Ministry of Justice indicate the need to participate in the development of a Set of laws. The work on its creation is extremely voluminous and should be carried out taking into account the scheme of the subject classifier.

The history of our country gives us examples of the preparation of Codes of Laws. In 1832, the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire was published, which was an official publication and contained the current regulations grouped by subject. During the Soviet period, the Code of Laws of the USSR was formed ^[4]. Therefore, there are traditions of preparing such systematic acts in our country. It is necessary to study them carefully, and take all the positive things from past experience.

In the legal literature, various points of view are expressed regarding the work on the preparation of a Code of Laws. Most authors generally agree on the need to create it. However, one should agree with those authors who argue that at the moment, in the absence of stability in the legislative system and the active formation of new branches of law and branches of legislation, the implementation of work on such a global systematization is difficult ^[5].

The legal services of many authorities should take part in the preparation of such large acts of systematization. First of all, we are talking about the Legal Departments of the Chambers of the Federal Assembly, the State Legal Department of the President of the Russian Federation, scientific institutions, for example, the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law, which should determine the basic principles and methodological foundations for the preparation of a Code of Laws. The main task of both the codifier of normative legal acts and the Code of Laws is to satisfy the need for legal information. Subjects implementing legal norms should be able to quickly find the necessary rule of law that regulates the desired social relations. In addition, an effective system should be created that allows updating and maintaining the entire legislative body in a controlled state, identifying conflicts and gaps in the legislative system ^[6]. The structure of the codifier and the Code of Laws based on it should, on the one hand, be stable, and on the other hand, have mechanisms in its composition that ensure the possibility of including new legal institutions, new branches of law and legislation^[8].

Public authorities should create appropriate departments in their structure, which will be called upon to carry out work at the proper legal level not only on the creation of draft normative legal acts, but also their accounting and incorporation ^[7,8,9]. At the same time, they should use all modern information technologies ^[10] and take into account the latest methodological approaches ^[11]. Accounting of regulatory legal acts is currently effectively carried out by automated systems that allow you to quickly find the necessary legal information, as well as save large amounts of data.

Thus, in order to form a high-quality, effectively functioning legislative system, the activities of legal services of all public authorities related to the preparation of draft normative legal acts, their legal, linguistic, and anti-corruption expertise are necessary.