Unit 17 Law Enforcement in the Russian Federation

Before you read

Discuss these questions.

1What are the aims of the law concerned with?

2What does the law forbid?

3What state bodies are responsible for preventing any violations of law?

Text A

Law Enforcement of Today

Usefulness and necessity of law reveal themselves solely in the course of
implementation of law, its embodiment. Implementation of law provisions is practical
execution of instructions included in those provisions, when a rule, displayed in a
law provision in general form, is embodied in people’s deeds.

A special form of law realization is its enforcement. A peculiarity of the given form is that it is executed by the competent bodies and is aimed at a restricted number of persons or one person. An act of law enforcement is an individual act of an authorized body of power that is based on norms and determines particular rights, duties or liability. Non-observance of such acts is punished.

Major requirements to such acts are as following:

· Strict compliance with legal provisions

· An act must be issued within the limits of powers of the law enforcement body or an official

· An act must be substantiated

· An act must have all the_; required characteristics of an official document.

Law enforcement acts are not sources of law since they do not contain any general rules of conduct but ensure the application of certain law provisions with respect to a particular case or person. Unlike normative legal acts, acts of law enforcement are supposed to be applied once only.

The law enforcement is required in different cases, when implementation of the law is impossible without the interference of the state, its bodies or officials, such as:

• Relations in the sphere of the state management (e.g. appointment of a Federal Minister)

• Relations in the area of distribution of social benefits (e.g. pensions or state welfare payments)

• Relations arising in solving law disputes (e.g. the court decision)

• Relations arising under judicial prosecuting, imposing and executing the punishment (e.g. the ruling of the criminal investigator to initiate a criminal case).

Stages of Law Enforcement

Law enforcement is executed in a strictly set procedure and in a defined order. Main stages of law enforcement are as follows:

· Ascertaining the actual circumstances of the case

· Investigating and qualifying the actual circumstances (choosing the required law provision and interpreting it)

· Ruling on the case.

A Gap in a Law

A law-enforcement process is also executed in case of a gap in a law. A gap in a law is the absence of a necessary provision regulating public relations
that are to be regulated by law.

In case a gap in a law is discovered, it is liquidated by the means of:

· Adoption of a missing law provision by the competent bodies

· Eliminating the gap in the law by the law-enforcer. Principal ways to eliminate the gap in the law are:

● ● Application of analogy of law

● ● Application of analogy of legislation.

Application of Analogy of Law

In this case a gap in a law is eliminated by application of a law provision, regulating similar relations (such law provision serves as a law basis for the court decision).