In theory, the concept of enforcement designates the legal form of government activity aimed at implementing legal requirements. This wording is considered universally recognized. The article will consider in detail the features of law enforcement .
General information
Law enforcement is the implementation of norms within the framework of legal relations and the impact on obligated entities. The latter is carried out through the exercise by citizens and organizations of actions with legal significance.
Without enforcement, many relationships are often not possible. It is necessary if required:
- To resolve a controversial situation where the parties cannot agree on their own.
- Provide state control.
- Formally establish the absence / presence of specific facts, recognize them as legally significant.
- Prevent improper performance of duties and exercise of rights.
- Define measures of responsibility in the commission of offenses.
Imperious nature
There are a number of signs by which the specifics of law enforcement are determined . This is , first and foremost, a state-imperious character. Law enforcement can be seen as a form of managerial activity. Through its implementation, there is an individual and detailed impact on certain life situations that require power control or intervention. The law enforcement authority is vested in the bodies included in the state power system.
It must be understood that such activity is carried out exclusively within the framework of the powers granted to a specific structure in a specific area of public life.
Intellectual-volitional aspect
Law enforcement is a kind of translation of general prescriptions, principles into the behavior of specific individuals, which has legal significance. Subjects are vested with certain duties and rights depending on the circumstances of a particular situation.
Law enforcement is an activity that has an intellectual-volitional, cognitive character. It requires not only knowledge and understanding of the current legislation, but also some life experience, moral principles. Accordingly, increased demands are placed on law enforcers regarding their professional qualities.
Procedural form
It disciplines the participants in the law enforcement process , ensures the predictability and consistency of their actions. The procedural nature of the activity, therefore, is determined by the need to synchronize the actions of subjects, their multi-stage and increased social significance.
The procedural form acts as a guarantee of fair and informed decisions.
Bottom line
Enforcement of the law ends with the adoption of a legally significant, individually imperious decision. It provides not only a legal assessment of the specific situation, but also determines the subsequent behavior of its participants.
Decisions made as a result of law enforcement are mandatory not only for direct addressees, but also for an indefinite number of entities indirectly or directly involved in their implementation. For example, the order of the university rector to enroll a school graduate in the 1st year is legally significant not only for himself, but also for the various services of the educational institution and the military commissariat.
Stages
The practice of law enforcement is quite extensive and diverse. This process is quite complex, time-consuming. Implementation of law enforcement in several stages. Each of them carries out specific tasks that consistently lead to a single goal - making an informed decision governing a specific situation.
The stages of enforcement are relatively separate sets of actions. They are associated with ensuring the proper implementation of the norm governing the problem situation.
The following stages are conventionally distinguished:
- Determination of the actual basis.
- Selection and study of a legal norm.
- Decision making and documenting.
Definition of the basis
Each situation can be characterized by a huge number of different factual circumstances. However, most of them do not affect the legal assessment. In this regard, in a specific case, only 2 categories of factual circumstances are established to address enforcement issues :
- The main ones. They follow from the dispositive parts of substantive law. These circumstances have a direct impact on the legal assessment of a particular situation. For example, these may be facts of subjective rights, their violation, etc., failure to establish or incorrect determination of such circumstances entails the cancellation of the decision made in the case.
- Auxiliary. They are also called optional. Such facts do not directly affect the qualification of the situation, but contribute to establishing the true state of affairs. These include various evidence-based facts. After their establishment in court, they can become a confirmation of the circumstances included in the subject of evidence. The same group includes procedural and verification facts. The former are used to determine the jurisdiction of the dispute, the latter to refute or confirm evidence.
Norm selection and analysis
At this stage of enforcement, the situation is qualified. It involves the activities of authorized entities aimed at comparing and legal statement of factual circumstances that actually occurred at a particular moment, their typical model, reflected in the norm.
An authorized entity first determines the area of law enforcement - an industry whose rules govern a specific situation. Next, the institute of law and a specific regulatory provision are established. In this case, a kind of “criticism” of the norm is carried out. In particular, it is established whether it is valid for a given period of time, whether it extends its effect to a given territory, etc. After that, an authorized entity eliminates potential conflicts and determines the exact meaning of a normative prescription, interprets its contents and compares it with other norms.
It should be borne in mind that legal qualifications often involve not only legal, but also socio-political, and in some cases a moral and psychological assessment.
Decision making and execution
This stage of enforcement is considered the main. The previous stages are considered as preparatory. At the stage of decision making and execution, the following are combined:
- Information about the actual circumstances that are subject to legal qualifications.
- Legal information enshrined in the norms (legal structure) and reflecting the attitude to this and similar situations on the part of authorized law-making structures and the entire state as a whole.
- Social Information. They are expressed in different social norms: political, moral, religious, etc. This information contains an assessment of the situation by society.
Based on the information obtained in sufficient amounts by legal means, the law enforcer gives the final legal assessment, which is formalized by an official legal act, the implementation of which entails legal consequences.
Forms
In practice, they differ:
- Indisputable, simple, simplified enforcement. It does not imply a special study of norms and the involvement of others in the process. An example is the publication of the order of the director of the enterprise on the employment of a citizen.
- Enforcement complicated by dispute or conflict. In this case, to make a decision, it is necessary to conduct a full investigation of the situation and collect evidence.
Legally relevant dispute
Such a conflict can be seen as a kind of confrontation between legal entities with different legal positions to protect their interests. Between the participants in the legal relationship a dispute arises, expressed in a joint competition. It can be either oral or written. In this case, each side defends its position and rejects the arguments of the opposite side.
A guarantee of an objective and fair resolution of a controversial situation is its publicity, competitiveness and equality of participants. Justification of the position is carried out in the form of evidence. It involves the submission of information with confirmation. As a result, the information becomes convincing and reliable.
Truth setting
It is considered one of the key enforcement issues . The truth is the property of knowledge of reality. It is expressed in accordance with real events.
In reasoning, a person reflects the world as he sees, and not as he really is. In this regard, truth depends on the subjective abilities and capabilities of a particular individual, means and conditions of cognition. It can be distorted under the influence of many objective and subjective factors. Existing errors in reasoning are eliminated by proof. In terms of content, it appears not so much as a thought process, but as a collegial procedural activity.
Types of enforcement
Classification can be carried out on various grounds: depending on the problems of law enforcement , subjects, objects, etc.
If we talk about the subject composition, then we can distinguish the following types:
Executive and administrative. This category includes such areas of law enforcement as control and concretization. The relevant activities are carried out by authorized employees who fill various positions in executive structures. The essence of their work is to harmonize public and private interests. In their activities, employees must follow the law and meet a number of requirements (have the appropriate level of professionalism and competence).
Law enforcement. In this case, we are talking about establishing facts, considering disputes, applying sanctions for breaking the law. This activity is carried out by law enforcement agencies, which are independent of either administrative or political structures. The key place among them is assigned to the courts.
Enforcement Acts
As mentioned above, they are the result of the exercise of law. Law enforcement acts are documents that enshrine state-imperious, individually-specific decisions of authorized bodies in a particular legal case. They are considered as a kind of legal acts. At the same time, enforcement documents have a number of features:
- Approved by authorized government agencies.
- They have a state-imperious character.
- They are binding.
- Individually specific prescriptions are fixed.
- Their implementation is ensured by measures of state coercion.
Types of Acts
Classification can be carried out by:
- Subjects who accept acts. In accordance with this sign, decisions of executive structures (for example, an act on the beginning of recruitment in the Armed Forces, a diploma on obtaining the rank of professor, etc.) and law enforcement institutions (for example, a decision to open criminal proceedings, to refuse to initiate proceedings, etc. .).
- Key areas of government activity in various fields. For example, acts can be issued in the economic field (a resolution on the allocation of subsidies to a certain region), military affairs (a decision on granting a deferment from service), culture (a decision on the creation of a cultural-historical center of the peoples of Russia), and law enforcement (a decree on imputation pecuniary punishment for traffic violations).
- The specifics of the prescription. On this basis, they distinguish between regulatory (they are intended for fixing, execution, implementation of lawful actions) and protective acts (aimed at protecting the interests and rights of subjects).
- Approval procedure. Acts can be taken collectively (for example, decisions of the Higher Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science on awarding a scientific degree) or individually (decree on dismissal of a minister).
- Action time. There are acts of a one-time (decree on the formation of a commission on the organization of the celebration of the anniversary of the city) and a continuing application (decision on registration of the organization).
- Value. On this basis, distinguish the main (for example, court sentences), auxiliary (ruling on the inclusion in the case of materials provided by the plaintiff), additional acts (protocol of the meeting of the commission).
Law enforcement documents are also classified according to territory. Acts can be adopted at the federal (for example, government decree) and regional level (decisions of the regional administration).