Legal regime: the concept and features

The purpose of the study is to conduct a general theoretical analysis of scientific approaches to the definition of the concept and essence of the legal regime in order to overcome its narrow industrial understanding and identify the role and significance in the process of legal regulation. General scientific and private scientific methods of knowledge including formal legal and comparative legal methods have been chosen as research methods of this paper. Logical techniques allowing to reveal the essence of legal regimes and formulate the author's definition of them have also been applied. The analysis of scientific works expressing various opinions indicates that at present an instrumental approach to the definition of the concept and essence of the legal regime prevails directly (or indirectly through the procedure of legal regulation) as a set of legal means (instruments). The following are mentioned as signs of the legal regime: mandatory normative legal consolidation (formal legal nature), specific target, special regulatory order based on a combination of legal means and methods of legal regulation, in relation to subjects of law, i.e., in a subjective sense, creating of favorable (or unfavorable) conditions to achieve certain interests, systemic and integrated character of a regime and its special structure. As a result, the author's definition of the legal regime is presented as a special procedure for the legal regulation of public relations, based on a certain combination of legal means and methods of legal regulation (permits, prohibitions, and positive obligations) aimed at achieving the relevant legal goals and planned optimal socially significant result.