We are all obligated to live by the laws. Some of them were created to protect the interests of the state and society, while some simply establish a certain procedure, so that we know what to do and how. Most laws exist in free form, but there are codified, most significant and known to society.
"The law is harsh, but the law"
Of course, when the first code appeared, no one would say for sure. Their roots date back to ancient Greece and Rome, but the active codification of legislation began closer to the Soviet era (XX century). It is worth noting that it was thanks to the systematization of legislation that the code appeared. What is systematization? This is a regulated, intellectual process of bringing legislative acts into a structured, systemic form. It began a long time ago, but it began to be actively applied only from the 17th-18th centuries, as an example, the famous Code of Napoleon. In the future, systematization of legislation will become one of the most important tasks of state bodies. It should be understood that the law is designed to regulate and control, punish and suppress, so that, as a rule, it performs protective and punitive functions, and therefore its observance is simply necessary for everyone for whom it is designed.
How are laws systematized
In general, there are 3 types of systematization - codification, consolidation, incorporation. In our legal family (Romano-Germanic), the codification is most developed, the result of which is the code. What is codification? This is a type of systematization of legislation, in which all regulatory legal acts of the level of “law” governing one sphere of society are combined into one. Simply put, a code is a set of federal laws, and indeed it is such a law, therefore it is often called the Federal Code. Currently, in the Russian Federation there are a huge number of codes - from the well-known Civil Code to the Criminal Executive, and all are created through the codification of laws. They can be supplemented, changed and cease to exist only on the basis of individual federal laws, with an indication in such of this. The federal law, as a general rule, is valid throughout our state and is binding on all its residents (from individuals to government bodies) and even stateless persons, citizens of another state, etc.
Targets and goals
First of all, the codes are designed to regulate the spheres of public life, and quite clearly. Depending on what sphere the code regulates, it has its own tasks and goals, although there are common laws for the whole - maintaining the interests of society and the state, and protecting them. Each of the regulatory legal acts must have a subject of regulation, including a code. What does all this mean? Social relations, emerging in the process of life. They can be both within the law and violate it. In addition, if we talk specifically about codification, it is worth noting that its goal is also to create such an act that would be most convenient for citizens. That is, the state takes care of fostering a legal culture through the creation of accessible and understandable acts. Of course, not all articles of the codes will be clear to you if you are not a lawyer, but for this additional interpretative acts are created, comments on the codes are written - this is the work of the highest judicial and legislative authorities.
Perception
Each code is perceived by society and even the state in its own way: much depends on the goals and objectives that it sets for itself, on the circle of public and state interests that it protects. The famous phrase enshrined in the law - “ignorance of the law does not exempt from liability” - is the subject of constant discussion, because it is one thing to know the criminal law, quite another to know the whole list of administrative offenses that may be established by the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. However, the principle of knowledge of the law prescribes the presumption of any code. What is presumption and why is it fixed? This is a provision that does not require substantiation (as an axiom in geometry), and its consolidation is necessary to give legal force.