The article is devoted to the concepts of the idea of law and law enforcement. The author justifies the idea that the application of law should be based on the idea of law. Modern trends in law enforcement convince that since the post-war period, law enforcement agencies (and, above all, the courts) increasingly make decisions and sentences not only on the basis of the norms of positive law, but also guided by the norms of morality, ethics, principles of respect for individual rights and freedoms. The idea of law is a concept in which the imperative is expressed in a concentrated form, implying the observance of personal rights and freedoms, morals and ethics, etc., by state bodies. The influence of the idea of law on law enforcement can give the latter properties that correspond to the modern ideas of justice and morality of law. On the basis of the analysis of acts of constitutional justice and judicial precedents, the author proves that judicial decisions and other law-enforcement acts, adopted under the influence of the idea of law, acquire new qualities that allow them to dynamically exert a positive legal impact. As a result, the acts of law enforcement can be considered as a law per se.