Constitutional sources of law in the Russian Federation - on the example of environmental protection acts

Abstract

The constitutional catalog of sources of law, a clear and unquestionable division of acts
into universally binding and internal ones, is, from the perspective of European democracies,
of fundamental importance for the implementation of the principles of the rule of law, legalism
and the rule of law. The essence of any democratic legislation is to base its functioning on the
law established by the bodies appointed for this purpose, binding its addressees and enforced
by public authorities, also with the use of coercive measures.
The purpose of this article is to outline the constitutional system of the sources of law of
the Russian Federation and to illustrate it, as far as possible, with environmental protection acts.
In particular, the subject of this work is to define the name of a given source, the authority
competent to publish it, its function and place in the hierarchy, as well as promulgation rules.
The key research problem is the distinction between the sources of universally binding law and
the sources of internal law, as the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation do
not directly determine this. However, this issue is of fundamental importance from the point of
view of the status of legal entities. Internal acts may be directed only to organizational units
subordinate to the authority issuing these acts and may not directly regulate the sphere of rights
and obligations, and constitute the basis for decisions towards citizens, legal persons or other
entities.