Substatutory Act

a legal act by a state body (a competent organization) promulgated on the basis of and in the execution of a statute. In the USSR, the principle of the supremacy of statutory law— which can only be promulgated by the Supreme Soviet— in the system of legal acts of the Soviet state assigns all other legal acts to the category of substatutory acts.

Depending on its legal nature, a substatutory act may be a normative act or an act involving the application of the law. The right to promulgate normative substatutory acts is possessed only by bodies empowered by the Constitution of the USSR and the Constitutions of the Union and autonomous republics. These bodies are the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the presidia of the supreme Soviets of the Union and autonomous republics, the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the councils of ministers of the Union and autonomous republics, ministers of the USSR and the Union and autonomous republics, and local Soviets of workers’ deputies and their executive committees. Sub-statutory acts involving the application of the law may be promulgated by all state bodies, strictly within the limits of their competence and in full conformity with existing legislation.