From Established Concepts to Modern Innovations in the Work on the Systematization of Legislation

The article is based on the author’s report at the plenary session of the XII All-Russian Annual Meeting of Legal Theorists (Moscow, March 5–6, 2025). The main focus of the Meeting was the analysis of traditional forms of systematization of legislation in the light of the history of the state and law and the achievements of historical legal science. This approach is not void of perspective, especially considering the analysis of the great contribution to the theory and practice of systematization of legislation by scientists from the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law (I. S. Samoshchenko, S. N. Bratus, A. V. Mitskevich, A. S. Pigolkin et al.). However, the system of legal regulation in general and the Russian legal system in particular have undergone such significant changes that, with all their force in theory and to no lesser extent in practice, certain innovations are making themselves felt, requiring designation, analysis and decision regarding entry not just into the system of legislation, but into the legal system in the broad meaning of this concept. The article proposes two novelties: firstly, to focus efforts on systematization of all documents that satisfy the qualities of the source of law; secondly, to take into account the place and role of decisions of the Russian Constitutional Court in the work on systematization of law. The author draws attention to the need to take into account the foreign experience of systematization, including acts that do not contain primary legal norms.