Legal regulation of economic activity: principles, regulations and laws

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

The system of domestic law does not provide for an industry that provides legal regulation of economic activity and the legal relations that develop during its implementation. This function is realized through the norms of different legal branches of law. We are talking about civil, constitutional, labor, financial and other legislation. Taken together, the norms related to the legal regulation of economic activity constitute business law. Further in the article we will consider its features.

General information

Legal regulation in the sphere of economic activity is carried out by a set of norms of different legal branches. The most important among them are constitutional provisions that provide guarantees for entrepreneurship. ATin accordance with Art. 34 of the Constitution, each subject has the right to freely use his abilities and property to conduct activities not prohibited by law.

The key role in the legal regulation of economic activity belongs to the norms of administrative and civil law. The former regulate the procedure for registering business entities, licensing, etc. The relations regulated by civil law include property relations, contractual legal relations. They are also called horizontal, because they are based on the equality of the sides. In addition, civil law regulates the status of business entities - legal entities and individual entrepreneurs (Article 2 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). It is worth saying that it does not apply to property legal relations based on administrative or other power subordination, including tax and other financial ones, unless otherwise established by federal law. The corresponding provision is enshrined in paragraph 3 of Article 2 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Specifics of private law regulation

It is based on civil law. It is obvious that entrepreneurial activity cannot be carried out under pressure, coercion, administrative-command influence. Otherwise, the economy ceases to be proactive, free, and turns into a planned one. In this regard, the dispositive method used in the framework of civil law is most consistent with the nature of economic activity.

Directionsregulation

Civil law governs:

1. Organizational and legal forms of activity.
2. The procedure for the formation of legal entities, termination of their work, declaring them bankrupt.
3. Internal relations in commercial companies.
4. Relations of ownership and derivatives of them.
5. Contractual relationship.
6. Grounds, forms, amounts of property liability of economic entities for violations committed in the course of doing business.

Key Principles

The application of the provisions of regulatory legal acts issued by the authorities in the field of entrepreneurship should provide conditions for the realization by economic entities of their capabilities and potential. At the same time, it is important to maintain a balance between the interests of the state and business. For this, the following principles of legal regulation of economic activity are applied:

1. Freedom of contract and business.
2. Legal equality of subjects.
3. Free competition, limiting the activities of monopolists.
4. Legality of doing business.

Civil Law

Legal regulation of economic activity, as mentioned above, is carried out by the provisions enshrined in the Civil Code. The Code is recognized as one of the key acts regulating civil circulation. In addition to it, the legal regulation of economic activity (including external) of entrepreneurship is carried out by other acts containing civil law norms. To them, in particular,include federal laws, government decrees, presidential decrees, acts of executive power structures (departments and ministries).

It must be said that in the Russian Federation, local governments and regional authorities cannot adopt acts containing civil law norms. This is within the exclusive powers of the federal structures.

Extra

In addition to normative legal acts, customs of turnover act as sources of civil law. They represent certain rules of conduct that have developed in a particular field of activity, for example, in banking, insurance, shipping, etc.

Public Law Regulation

It is aimed mainly at preventing negative consequences that may arise in a free market, i.e., at the legal provision of economic security.

Relevant regulations govern:

1. Procedure for state registration of business entities.
2. Antitrust.
3. Standardization, unity of measurements, certification.
4. Sanctions for violations in the economic sphere.

Licensing

To conduct certain types of activities, an economic entity must obtain a special permit. The license is issued by the authorized body to legal entities and entrepreneurs subject to the requirements and conditions established by the norms.

The scope of licensing is regulated by administrative and legal norms. As a key legal actFederal Law No. 99.

Obtaining a permit means that the authorized bodies can control the compliance of the business entity with the requirements and conditions stipulated by the license. If violations are found, the validity of the document may be suspended. In this case, the subject is given a period of up to six months to eliminate them. If the violations remain, the license may be revoked.

The Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption takes an active part in the detection of offenses. Subdivisions of this structure operate in all regions of Russia.

Antitrust regulation

There is an opinion that the market model of economic activity does not need legal regulation at all, because one of the essential conditions is the freedom of entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, this opinion is erroneous; practice has shown the failure of this approach.

As the experience of most countries using the market model shows, complete freedom of entrepreneurship is always associated with all sorts of abuses: the appearance of low-quality products, services, in some cases posing a threat to the he alth or life of consumers, the creation of fraudulent schemes to attract money from the population, etc..

One of the dangerous consequences of complete freedom in the market is the domination of monopolies. The efficiency of the economic system is ensured by various mechanisms. One of the most important is free competition. The opposite of it is a monopoly - the dominance of an economic entity onmarket. Due to the dominant position, enterprises can extract super profits without worrying about the quality of a product or service, production efficiency, etc.

In the structure of the authorities there are several institutions whose work is related to the detection of violations of antitrust laws. First of all, this is the FAS Russia. The Antimonopoly Service closely cooperates with the Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption and other law enforcement agencies.

Certification and standardization

Everything related to the legal regulation of economic activity is aimed at protecting the he alth and life of consumers, ensuring the quality and interchangeability of products. Certification and standardization are essential tools to achieve these goals.

Standardization is the activity of establishing rules and benchmarks that a product, service or work must comply with. It is necessary to increase the competitiveness of enterprises, to achieve order in the production sector.

Certification is a procedure related to confirming the conformity of product quality with the requirements provided for in technical regulations, provisions of standards, terms of contracts, etc. It can be voluntary or mandatory. Forms of mandatory certification are, for example, the adoption of a declaration of conformity. Such confirmation is carried out in cases established in the technical regulations.

Selling goods, providing services, performingworks, the certification of which is mandatory, is carried out only if there is a certificate of conformity.

Government agencies authorized to monitor compliance with the requirements of the standards, in case of violations, may apply administrative measures to those responsible, including fines and bans on the sale of goods.

Economics and management

In the process of managing, a variety of legal relations arise. They are not limited to the interaction between the consumer and the producer. The management of the economy is also of paramount importance in a market system. It represents a purposeful ordering impact on the economic activity of all participants in the turnover.

The labor of workers of any enterprise is organized for the most efficient use of production assets and providing the owner with a high income. In this case, there is a direct dependence of management on ownership. In some cases, the owner of the enterprise is its head, in others, he hires specialists for this.

Management is closely related to the division of labor and cooperation. The effectiveness of management is achieved by ensuring coordinated and purposeful work, a clear distribution of functions between the participants in the production process.

Governance structure

Regulation of economic activity is carried out through a set of measures and tools, coordinated with each other and scientifically substantiated. All these methods, techniques,methods are used by the administrative apparatus - the governing bodies.

Coordination and regulation of socio-economic processes is carried out at the federal, regional and territorial levels.

Regional structures of power and local governments in the Russian Federation are responsible for strengthening economic ties, stabilizing the local economy.

At the federal level, management functions are carried out by the Government, the President, ministries and departments, the Accounts Chamber, Parliament.

Functions of the Government

In the system of state regulation of the economy, the Government is one of the key subjects of management. This body provides control over the level of employment of the population and the balance of payments, the introduction of innovative socio-economic programs for the purpose of redistributing income, etc.

Measures are being developed at the government level to control the use of natural resources, finance educational, food and other programs.

Departments and ministries

These links of the system carry out operational management in the relevant economic sectors. Ministries and departments receive statistical data, the results of monitoring production processes, market analysis, consumer demand, and manufacturers' proposals. Based on the information received, programs are developed to optimize costs, and the most promising areas of development are identified.

Toolsregulation

In addition to legal acts, among effective measures, priority is increasingly given to financial and credit methods. It is, in particular, about the measures of tax, customs, depreciation, credit, currency policy.

In different countries, a certain ratio is established between different forms and instruments of economic regulation. Depending on the method of influence, indirect and direct regulators are distinguished. The latter include methods and measures that strictly regulate the behavior of participants in the turnover. They are expressed in the form of laws, orders, orders, resolutions, judicial acts.

Indirect controllers imply the possibility of choosing one or another action. These include, for example, different taxation conditions, different prices, rates, tariffs, customs duties, etc.

Other branches of public regulation

The administrative law performs a protective function in the field of economic management. Its norms establish various sanctions for violations in the field of entrepreneurial activity in general and for non-compliance with regulations in specific economic sectors.

On offenses that pose a high public danger, criminal norms apply.

Indirect legal regulation is carried out with the help of tax legislation. Despite the fact that the Tax Code does not define the rights and obligations of subjects in the business sphere, the Code may have an indirect impact on the participants in legal relations by establishing different regimestaxes, benefits, rates, etc.

Types of responsibility of economic entities

The most severe is the criminal punishment. Only individuals can be held liable under the Criminal Code - managers, accountants, employees, specialists. Punishment is imputed only if guilt is proven. The basis for bringing to criminal responsibility is the commission by a person of an act that has signs of a crime.

Administrative sanctions can be imposed on both citizens and legal entities. The grounds and procedure for bringing to responsibility are established in the Code of Administrative Offenses. The most common type of sanction is a fine. One of the most serious punishments is disqualification - deprivation of the right to conduct a certain type of activity.

Responsibility for Tax Code comes for violation of tax regulations. We are talking, for example, about late submission of a declaration, failure to fulfill budget obligations, provision of false information in reporting, etc. Tax liability consists in imposing a fine on the subject.

Civil law measures are applied to persons who violate the rights of other entities. This type of liability ensures the restoration of the situation that existed before the violation of rights. So, a person whose interests have been infringed has the right to demand compensation for harm (including moral). In addition, the Civil Code provides for sanctions in the form of pen alties, fines, forfeits against entities that have violated the terms of the contract.