HIERARCHY OF RUSSIAN LAW SOURCES: AN ANALYSIS OF LEGISLATION AND DOCTRINE THROUGH THE COMPARATIVE LEGAL PRISM OF BULGARIAN LAW

Abstract

Introduction: the article analyzes the conceptual problem of the formation of the ‘law on laws’, evaluates different approaches to the study of the system of normative legal acts, formulates the prerequisites for the uniform legal regulation of the hierarchy of sources of law. Purpose and objectives: the aim of the study is a legislative and doctrinal analysis of Russian and Bulgarian law from the perspective of the development of the law on normative legal acts. To this end, the authors set the following research tasks: firstly, to study the hierarchy of law as a conceptual problem and object of legal regulation; secondly, to study the problem of the status of judicial sources; thirdly, to research the place of doctrine in the hierarchy of law; fourthly, to analyze legislative regulation of the hierarchy of law through the prism of application of doctrinal developments. Results: the article discusses various bills aimed at legal regulation of sources of law (1996, 2014, 2021). The authors analyze the Bulgarian law of 1973 ‘On Normative Legal Acts’, which is one of the earliest and most famous ‘laws on laws’ in Eastern Europe, as a positive experience of legal regulation of the hierarchy and system of normative legal acts. The paper describes the general characteristics of the systems of normative legal acts in Russia and Bulgaria. Similar features include the priority place of constitutional acts in the system of normative legal acts, the problem of interaction between international and domestic law, the essential importance of judicial practice for the development of legal systems, the secondary position of legal doctrine, discrepancies in the principles of law, controversial issues of the recognition of legal custom, etc. The authors analyze related problems of sources of law, the role of legal doctrine, the relationship between domestic and international law.