The Concept of Economic Activity in Contemporary Law of Russia

The paper is devoted to the study of the category “economic activity” used in modern Russian law. The
author notes that, despite the absence of a legal definition of this category, it is used in the current legislation of the Russian Federation (civil, criminal, administrative and other branches of legislation, including legislation regulating procedural issues). The legislative gap under consideration creates problems in law enforcement, which the judiciary draws attention to: the lack of definition of the concept under review makes it difficult to establish jurisdiction, since any activity of the participants of relations regulated under civil law has an economic basis. However, a number of documents contain a description of economic activity. 

In the doctrine, the category “economic activity” is mainly investigated by academic economists, lawyers pay little attention to the consideration of this concept. The few legal doctrinal statements and attempts made by the judiciary to define it are insufficient to fully understand economic activity in the context of law. 
The paper analyzes doctrinal and judicial approaches to the content and characteristics of economic activity, attempts to define the concept under consideration. The author considers that the concept "economic activity" refers to the commission of legal actions by the actors at various levels of management aimed at production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods through the use of their or attracted skills and assets to meet their (or third parties) material and spiritual needs. At the same time, the characteristic of professionalism used in the doctrine should be used to differentiate economic activity carried out in active and passive forms.

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