Anti-Crisis Legal Regulation in the COVID-19 Conditions: The System of Restrictions or Creative Legal Impact

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to scientifically and critically comprehend the experience of European countries in overcoming the COVID-19 consequences and, on its basis, to construct an optimal model of modern anti-crisis legal regulation. Design/Methodology/Approach: The authors constructed the anti-crisis legal regulation model and studied using the systematic scientific approach and the method of analysis and programming to reconstruct typical patterns of social relations, basing on knowledge about the regulation object and using legal tools and techniques. Through the methods of modeling and reconstruction the authors could develop and substantiate the anti-crisis model structure. In order to determine the national characteristics of the subject, the authors used the comparative legal method as well as statistical, system-structural and functional methods. Findings: As a result of the study, the authors made the conclusions about the essence of the crisis impact caused by the COVID-19 on the mechanism of legal regulation, about the features and principles of anti-crisis legal regulation, in particular, its subject, method, goals and tasks, and means of legal influence. The authors determined the conditionality of the anti-crisis legal regulation model by the initial legal principle underlying it, and the national legal awareness features. The authors prove that total restrictions make the population to overstep law, thereby reduce the authority of the law and trust in the legal bodies, deform legal awareness, violate existing legal relations and relationships. Practical Implications: The results of the study, based on a wide range of empirical data, are necessary for the development of state programs for the business normalization and the economy recovery, as well as for the formation of national strategies for anti-crisis legal regulation and guidelines, recommendations and clear procedures for the public emergency introduction. In particular, the authors proposed to use political and legal programming as a method of legal regulation in a crisis. Originality/Value: The novelty of the article is to develop the structure, models and features of anti-crisis legal regulation in COVID-19 pandemic conditions on the analysis and generalization of the experience of some European countries. The study proves the low effectiveness of the restrictive anti-crisis model of legal regulation in comparison with the creative legal impact both in conditions of a crisis and in overcoming its negative consequences.