Why the Code of Labor Laws,not the Labor Code: to the question of formand name Soviet labor-legal codified acts

Abstract

The article addresses the historical and modern aspects of the codification of domestic labor legislation through the prism of the form and name of the sectoral codified act. It is shown that the form "code of laws" began to be used by the Russian legislator since 1918, and most actively - during the codifications of labor legislation (codes of labor laws 1918, 1922, 1971, the first projects of the current Labor Code of the Russian Federation). The emergence of the "code of laws" was associated with the search for new ways of external expression of law after the revolutionary events of October 1917. It is noted that the form "code of laws" did not reflect the nature of codification, did not allow it to be delimited from another type of legal systematization - official incorporation. The erroneous decision of the legislator is explained by the lack of theoretical understanding of the problems of codification in the first years of the Soviet regime, an inattentive attitude to the technical and legal side of law-making, as well as its situational nature. The refusal to use the form "code of laws" occurred quite quickly, but in a number of industries (primarily in labor legislation) this practice remained for a long time, primarily due to the established traditions of industry codifications and for ideological and political reasons. The removal of the legally incorrect wording "code of laws" from modern codification practice became the correct decision of the legislator. The Code is a form of law, a special codified act that does not mechanically combine various laws, but is the result of a significant processing of their regulatory material, as well as the provisions of other legal acts. In the construction of the "code of laws," the second element not only distorts the essential features of the code as the result of codification, but also contradicts logic and common sense. In contrast, the arrangement of the word "codex" in the name of the codified act and used to denote the sectoral affiliation of the act of the part of speech (adjective or noun) may well be the subject of scientific controversy. The understanding of the "code of laws" as an act that reflects the results of a significant revision of individual laws also does not disclose the essence of codification, since the material for the code is not only the norms of legislation, but also by-laws, as well as law enforcement and interpretation practice, scientific ideas, etc.