Party Law-Making

Abstract

The article assesses the possibility of the party›s participation in law-making. It is established that the understanding of law-making as the activity of the state to create and amendment of legislative act does not cover the entire diversity of the concept of law-making. Using concrete examples from the practice of the Communist Party in the Soviet State, it was proved that under certain historical conditions the party could perform the role of a law-making entity. At the same time, the scale of this role varied from ideological leadership to autonomous legislative activity. Depending on the role performed and the mechanism of the party›s introduction into the law-making process, five forms of participation are identified. The first form is designated as «Party initiative» and assumes that the party addresses the state body with an order, which in general terms or in detail determines which norms need to be given the character of legal. The extreme degree of the party›s interference in the law-making process within the framework of the party initiative presupposes the creation by the party of specifi c articles of the future legislative act. The second form is the offi cial participation of party structures in the law-making process as rightful subjects. In this case, a special «party» stage appears in the law-making process. At this stage, the party structure creates, amends, evaluates, or approves draft laws. It is impossible to bypass the party stage, this is considered a violation of the law-making process. The third form is the joint law-making activity of the party and the state, which can range from equal partnership to party dictate. The fourth form of participation is designated as «comprehensive law-making» since it combines features of several forms. The fi fth form is «Autonomous Party law-making». This is the creation of legal acts by the party, independent of the offi cial state legislator. According to their characteristics, these acts of the party comply with the requirements for regulatory legal acts. The result of the manifestation of this form of party participation in law-making is designated as a «party legal act».