It has long been proven that man is a social being. That is, it cannot exist outside of society. After all, it is in him that a person contacts with his own kind and implements this or that activity. But practically at all times there was a problem of control and regulation of public relations. Because they differ in mass character, a large number of subjects of interaction, and also have other characteristics depending on the social group in which social relations “live”. With the gradual evolution of humanity as a whole, this type of interaction between people also underwent changes.
To date, social relations, in fact, are ordinary life activities . As for their regulator, it was also found in the process of trial and error. That is right today. But this category cannot be directly regulated . The right for this requires special formalized rules in which specific social rules will live. The process of creating these norms has a lot of characteristic features and specific significance for the sphere of jurisprudence as a whole. Therefore, in the article we will try to consider lawmaking, the concept and stages of this process, as well as other characteristics that characterize it.
The essence of law
Before considering lawmaking, stages, principles and varieties of this process, it is necessary to understand what constitutes law in general. We have already indicated that law is nothing but a regulator of public relations. But this is a rather dry perception of the legal industry as a whole. In a broad sense, law is a set of standards of behavior that are characterized by formal certainty, assurance, universally binding, etc. It is thanks to the implementation of the provisions of these norms that the direct coordination of relations in society is carried out. All the activities presented are implemented in order to achieve the rule of law and rule of law, as well as to eliminate the violation of any freedoms of citizens. In turn, lawmaking, the stages of which will be presented in the article, is responsible for creating authorized official legal norms.
Attributes of the category of law
The fact that law is primarily a legal category determines the existence of a number of specific features. It is thanks to them that we can talk about the consistency and independence of this category from other regulators of social relations. Thus, the characteristic features of law include the following features, for example:
- Normativeness . That is, the law exists in the provisions of regulatory legal acts. Their existence allows scientists to study lawmaking, stages and features of this process.
- The generally binding nature of the norms determines the activity of their provisions for absolutely all citizens without exception.
- Intellectual and strong-willed character. In other words, law as a social “product” expresses the will of society. And it appears through his intellectual work.
- The state fully guarantees the enforcement of the right. An example of this is lawmaking, the stages of which are presented in this article.
- The law exists in the form of a structured hierarchical system of regulations.
All the features presented indicate that the law must exist in an official form, so that its main function - public regulation - could be realized. In turn, any regulations do not appear out of nowhere. Their creation is a set of separate procedures, as mentioned earlier. Therefore, it is necessary to understand what lawmaking is. The concept, stages, principles of this process will be presented with the aim of a detailed analysis of all activities.
What is lawmaking?
Lawmaking, principles, forms, the stages of which will be presented later in the article, is the subject of many theoretical interpretations. This work of scientists entailed the emergence of the concept of lawmaking. According to his definition, this is the process by which special legal actions are carried out aimed at the development, adoption and publication of legal acts . Moreover, absolutely all normative acts, without exception, have a special procedural design, which indicates their official nature. Given all the points presented, it can be concluded that lawmaking is a system of specific actions, the result of which is the emergence of new rules of law or entire normative acts.
The presented concept can also be considered in a narrow and broad sense, as this issue is today one of the most popular in the field of theory of state and law. Indeed, the effectiveness of the further process of legal regulation as a whole will depend on its quality.
Lawmaking in a narrow and broad sense
In the narrow sense, the term is the activity of the competent authorities in the publication of regulatory legal acts. In other words, the term is interpreted literally. A broad understanding has significant differences. Because it includes not only the process of adoption of normative acts, but also the activity that preceded it. Indeed, the effectiveness of regulation of public relations depends not only on the quality of the legal acts, but also on the level of legal culture, the mechanism of law enforcement, etc. Thus, lawmaking, the concept, principles, types, stages of which are presented in the article, are a whole complex of actions both the time for the direct publication of formalized rules of conduct, and up to this point.
Principles of the law-making process
Like any legal process, lawmaking is based on certain general principles. Thanks to them, the specified system of various actions can be implemented without any violations within the legal field. To date, the following principles are known on the basis of which lawmaking is carried out, namely:
- Democracy . This basic idea is that when issuing normative acts the interests of absolutely all segments of the population should be taken into account. In other words, the advantage of one's interests cannot arise.
- The principle of legality lies in the fact that law-making activity is always, without any exceptions, carried out within the framework of the relevant legal procedure.
- The principle of professionalism plays a fairly significant role. This means that the process should be carried out mainly by professionals in those areas of life, the regulation of which is organized by this normative act. After all, without exception, norms affect large social groups. Therefore, their "underdevelopment" can negatively affect not only relations in society, but also on society itself.
- All regulations must comply with the principle of timeliness . Thus, the regulation of public relations must be organized if it is necessary in a particular situation.
- The principle of enforceability , in fact, ensures the real effect of all the “products” of the law-making process. To do this, they must meet legal, economic and other standards.
It should be noted that the principles and stages of lawmaking are quite dependent on each other, since the direct implementation of the process is always carried out only taking into account the above presented initial areas of this legal category. In addition, a significant role is played by the functions of lawmaking, which will be discussed later.
The functions of the law-making process
The functional part of the category presented in the article makes it possible to see specific areas of its activity. In other words, you can understand in detail which segments of this industry are regulated by lawmaking. To date, scientists distinguish a number of the following functions, namely:
- Updating the regulatory framework, that is, through lawmaking, all outdated norms of behavior are eliminated, and new ones are created that are more suitable taking into account current trends.
- An important functional part of lawmaking is to fill in legal gaps, that is, any social relations that are not regulated by legal norms are “blocked” by the provisions of specific legal acts.
- Lawmaking allows you to put in order a system of normative acts, by streamlining it and creating hierarchy.
All these functional areas are fully manifested in the stages of lawmaking. They, in turn, are a concrete “personification” of the activities of the authorities, to create the regulatory framework of the state.
Lawmaking stages
As mentioned earlier, the whole process of lawmaking consists of certain stages. The algorithm for their implementation is due to temporary factors, as well as a certain sequence, which should not be violated. The following main stages of law-making exist, namely:
- preparation of draft regulations;
- The official adoption of the legal regulation.
Some scholars also highlight the stage of development of regulations. However, its existence is an extremely controversial issue, because the actual development, as a rule, is implemented at the stages of the preparation phase. Nevertheless, this theory has a right to exist, because its provisions are not without meaning.
Features of each stage
The stages of law-making in the Russian Federation reflect the real process of creating the regulatory framework of the state. Each step of this process contains a series of separate steps. Thus, the first stage is carried out through the following steps, namely:
- Decision-making on the creation and preparation of a draft legal regulation.
- Formation of a group of specialists who will work on the creation of a normative act.
- Preparation of the text of a regulatory act.
- Discussion of the draft regulatory acts is preliminary.
- Direct coordination of the provisions of the legal acts with organizations.
- Approval of the draft regulatory act.
The main feature of the first stage is the fact that it can be carried out outside the walls of the law-making body. As a rule, the preparation of legal acts falls on the shoulders of scientific institutions of the state.
But in the law-making body there is not always the right number of specialists in that sphere of public relations, which will be regulated by a specific legal act. As for the second stage, its steps are always implemented in the law-making body. It consists of the following items:
- Submission of statements on the draft regulatory act to be adopted.
- Discussion of the draft normative act by authorized persons.
- The signing of the legal acts after its direct adoption.
- The announcement of the adoption of the legal acts in official sources.
The stages of law-making in the Russian Federation may differ depending on the type of this process and the body in which it is carried out. After all, different government departments accept different legal acts of the law. This means that the procedure for their publication will also vary. Thus, taking into account all the above facts, we can conclude that the stages of law-making are elements of certain stages of this process. Moreover, they have their own specifics, if you look at them through the prism of the specifics of the “publishing authority”, the legal force of the act and the legislation that governs this process in a particular body.
It is also worth noting the fact that the types and stages of law-making are quite interrelated concepts. Since their specific features determine the direct influence on each other. In other words, the essence of its procedural implementation will depend on the type of law-making.
Types of lawmaking process
We have previously indicated that the types and stages of lawmaking are interrelated concepts. However, the second category has already been discussed above. Now let’s try to clarify the essence of the classification of the lawmaking process. So, to date, theoretical scientists who consider the issues presented in the article, identify a number of the following types of lawmaking, namely:
- Direct lawmaking, that is, carried out by the people through a referendum, and not elected bodies.
- Lawmaking, which is carried out by public authorities in the process of their activities. An example of such activities are acts of the Russian Federation, the State Duma, the government, etc.
- Lawmaking emanating from individual government officials, such as the president and ministers.
- Lawmaking can be carried out by local governments.
- Some institutions and organizations have the authority to issue local regulations, within their competence.
A relative novelty in the regulatory policy of the Russian Federation is the lawmaking of public organizations, such as trade unions. On the one hand, their ability to issue their acts is nonsense. Since such liberty is contrary to the doctrine of any legal system. On the other hand, public organizations can be identified with the same institutions that issue local acts within their competence.
There is also an example of a different classification of types of law-making process. For example, all types can be divided among themselves on the basis of significance for society and the state. Thus, the following types are distinguished, for example:
1. Lawmaking. The stages of lawmaking and lawmaking in the classic version are very similar to each other. At its core, the latter category is a set of stages by which laws are created in the state - the first acts of higher legal force after the Constitution.
2. Delegated law-making is carried out, as a rule, by executive bodies. They carry out the instructions of the parliament, in order to quickly solve any problems in their sphere of competence.
3. Legislative law-making is similar to delegated law. However, in the first case, we are talking about a system of regulations that are lower in their legal force of laws. They are also accepted in the field of activity of individual executive bodies and departments.
It follows that lawmaking, the concept, stages, the principles of which were presented in the article, can be implemented in different "dimensions" depending on the degree of importance of the regulated totality of social relations. In addition, the organ that implements this process is of great importance. Indeed, the result is normative acts that are completely different in their legal force, as already mentioned by the author of the article.
Conclusion
So, in the article we examined lawmaking, the concept, types, stages of this process. In conclusion, it should be noted that today this issue is still relevant in the scientific community. Since its improvement leads people to new frontiers in the regulation of social relations and society as a whole. In addition, thanks to the study of lawmaking as a process, we significantly develop the technique of creating unique and effective legislative acts.