LAWMAKING AS A FORM OF IMPLEMENTING LAW REFORM

Abstract

The article examines lawmaking as a form of implementing law reform and determines its place within the mechanism of reforming law. The relevance of the topic is due to the need to theoretically substantiate the role of lawmaking in the mechanism of law reform, as well as to the absence in contemporary general legal theory of a comprehensive approach to understanding lawmaking as a form of implementing law reform. The article analyzes legislative and doctrinal approaches to defining the concept of lawmaking and summarizes contemporary scholarly views on its nature, content, and correlation with legal formation, rule-making, and legislative activity. It is established that the modern understanding of lawmaking is characterized by the gradual expansion of its content and extends beyond activities connected exclusively with the adoption of normative legal acts. The author substantiates that lawmaking should primarily be regarded as a type of legal activity, whereas its characterization as a type of juridical activity is justified only with regard to those subjects for whom the exercise of lawmaking powers constitutes an element of their professional legal activity. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between lawmaking and law reform. It is proved that lawmaking should not be identified with law reform in general, but acquires a reform-oriented character only when it ensures a substantial transformation of law in accordance with the defined objectives, conceptual foundations, and value orientations of reform. It is determined that reform ideas acquire normative expression, become embodied in the forms (sources) of law, and are integrated into the legal system precisely through lawmaking. Particular emphasis is placed on the reformative potential of codification as a special form of lawmaking that ensures the systematic renewal of law and the creation of new legal constructions. It is concluded that lawmaking is the principal form of implementing law reform, since it provides normative consolidation, legal certainty, and practical realization of reformoriented transformations of law.