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Legal System of Belarus

Legal system of any state reflects objective laws of society development, its historical, national and cultural peculiarities. The Republic of Belarus like any other state has its own legal system, which has both common features with legal systems of other countries and its special characteristics.

The analysis of the legal system of the Republic of Belarus proves the fact that the contents and the dynamics of this system are being affected not only by politics, but also by the entire cultural wealth of society: religion, philosophy, morality and science. The evolution of the legal system of Belarus has tight connection with economical factors – development of productive forces and labour-management relations, with coming into being market economy.

It's generally known that all legal systems can be categorized into the groups (“law families”) depending on some common features. The legal systems of the Republic of Belarus as well as legal system of other states of continental Europe belongs to the Roman-Germanic Law Family. Roman Law (jurisprudence of Ancient Rome) is the primary source of this law family. The main characteristics of the Roman-Germanic Law Family are: optimal generalization of a rule of law, dividing law into public law and private one, separating different branches of law. A normative legal act is the main legal source in the countries with legal systems based on Roman-Germanic Law Family unlike those countries with legal systems based on Common Law Family.

The legal system of Belarus has profound historical roots. The Belarusian Feudal Law rank high among the other world famoust ancient legal codes (such as the Code of Hammurabi, the Law of the Twelve Tables, The Justinian Code, the Napoleonic Code). The famous 1529, 1566, 1588 Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian used to be the Law in force in the Middle Adges.The entire legal system of Belarus and Lithuania was based on the 1588 Statute for 250 years.

The legal system of the Republic of Belarus was greatly influenced by those states which influenced our country in particular historical periods (Poland – during the 17th–18th centuries, Russia – during the 19th–20th centuries). During the most part of the 20th century Belarus used to be a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (the USSR) and this fact surely affected the legal system of today's Belarus (its legal culture, formation of the branches of law, etc.). After the break-up of the USSR, the legal system of the Republic of Belarus segregated from so-called Socialist Law Family

The structure of the legal system of the Republic of Belarus contains three groups of legal elements (“legal phenomena”). Rules of law, legal principles and legal institutes (normative aspect) form the first group. The second group contains legal institutions (organizational aspect). And the third one is formed with legal views, opinions and concepts being peculiar for Belarusian society, standard of legal development.

Our republic as well as the other countries of the former USSR inherited the structure of the law system, which had been formed during the Soviet period. A branch of law is the basic structural division of the legal system in Belarus.

The system of law of the Republic of Belarus currently consists of the following branches: constitutional law, civil law, administrative law, criminal law, labour law, family law, land law, financial law, law of criminal procedure, law of civil procedure, law of execution of criminal punishment, etc.

The Constitution is the Fundamental Law of the Republic of Belarus, having supreme legal force. Legislative acts also cover laws enacted by Parliament and Decrees of the President which may have the force of laws in accordance with the Constitution. Decrees of the President, Decisions of the Government as well as legal acts of ministries and other governmental departments and acts of Local Councils of Deputies and Local Executive Committees are the most important acts of secondary legislation.

In the 1990th the legal system of the Republic of Belarus achieved an absolutely new phase of its development. With obtaining independence and the status of an equal member of the world community, adopting the Constitution appeared new possibilities for the development of the legal system of the Republic of Belarus according to the standards of a law-governed state and civil society.

The legal system of the Republic of Belarus is closely interacting with the legal system of Russia. The Treaty between Belarus and Russian Federation “On Creation of the Union State” dated on December 8, 1999 foresees the creation of the unified democratic legal system as one of the objectives of the Union State.

Time will show the real vitality of this legal system.

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