Svetlana Vladimirovna Boshno

Svetlana Boshno. Means and methods of legal regulation

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seen when comparing the civil and administrative relations. In civil relations, the 
parties act as legal entities and individuals. Public authorities act as legal entities 
and are unable to use their power. However, in legal relations, where the public 
body exercises the authority, norms of administrative law or other public law will 
be their regulator. In the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (p. 3 article 2) the 
issue is resolved as follows: «To the property relations based on administrative 
or other powerful subordination of one party to another, including tax, and other 
financial, and administrative relations, civil legislation is not applicable, unless 
otherwise provided by law».
There are imperative (mandatory) and dispositive (discretionary) methods 
of legal regulation.
2. Imperative method of legal regulation
Imperative method of legal regulation represents a set of methods 
and techniques, built on the principle of subordination of participants of legal 
relationships. With the effect of imperative, the subject has no choice, it must 
obey to a binding or restraining orders.
Ban is the obligation imposed on the subject of law to refrain from certain 
conduct. Implementation of the ban is carried out through omission of a subject 
of law. This method is imperative, as it does not provide alternatives to a single 
model of lawful behavior, i.e. inaction. Prohibitory rules may contain appropriate 
words: «prohibited», «not allowed», «no». Often verbs are not included in the text 
directly, but from the structure of a regulatory legal act, it follows that it describes 
precisely the prohibited conduct. As such, provisions of the Criminal Code of 
the Russian Federation are formulated. The prohibition on the execution of acts 
described in articles follows from the section title (crimes against a person) and 
the title of the chapter (crimes against life and health). Also, a ban can be inferred 
from the use of the word «punished» after the description of the offence itself. 
Committing the prohibited act is an offense and punished by appropriate legal 
sanctions. Sometimes the ban is closely fused with bind. In such situation, one and 
the same rule in content may be outlined with the use of the ban, and using bind 
as well. For example, article 125 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation 
«Abandonment in peril» stipulates the offence: deliberate abandonment without 
the help of a person who is in a life-threatening or health condition and deprived 
of opportunities to take steps for self-preservation on early childhood, old age, 
illness, or because of his powerlessness, in cases where the perpetrator was 
able to assist the person and was obliged to have the care or put him in a life-
threatening or health status. 
Article of the Criminal Code of RF formulates a legal requirement: not to 
leave a person without help. In fact, this is a ban on inactivity. And the same 
article states binding: to help that person. Prohibition to remain indifferent has 
been interpreted through requirement of action. 
Binding is also an imperative method. Its influence is evident in the 
requirement for a subject to take a certain action. At the same time, there is the 
entitled party in a legal relationship, which is granted the right to demand fulfillment 
of the relevant obligations. Responsibilities can be established in various ways. 
In labor legal relations, the duty to come to work at a certain time corresponds to 
the employer’s right to require to get started at a certain time. Obligation to pay 
taxes corresponds to the right of the tax authority to demand payment of taxes.