The Legal Department is a structural subdivision of the central staff of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation which provides legal support for the Ministry’s activities in developing state policy and regulation on matters within the Ministry’s terms of reference.
Within its competence, the Department performs the following functions:

• organizing and controlling the performance of the Plan for the Lawmaking Activities of the Russian Government and specific assignments of the President and Government of the Russian Federation regarding the drafting of federal laws;
• coordinating the cooperation of the Ministry and its structural subdivisions with the chambers of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and other state bodies and organizations on matters of lawmaking and other legal issues;
• providing, according to the established procedure, legal protection of the interests of the Russian Government and the Ministry in courts at various levels and other bodies; keeping record of judicial decisions and other judicial documents on lawsuits against the Ministry; controlling abidance with these documents; summarizing judicial practice.
• performing, according to the established procedure, the Ministry’s functions as a public sector client and coordinator of the federal target program “The Development of Russia’s Judicial System for 2007-2011;”
• ensuring Russia’s participation in the work of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), and the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT); providing a legal analysis of the documents prepared within the scope of this work, coordinating the activities of federal executive bodies, organizations, the Ministry’s structural subdivisions and foreign staff on matters of cooperation with UNCITRAL and UNIDROIT;
• independently preparing and participating in the preparation (analyzing, providing legal examination) of the drafts of federal laws, decrees and regulations by the President of the Russian Federation, decrees and regulations by the Russian Government, and other legal acts; international agreements on matters within the Ministry’s established terms of reference, as well as treaties, contracts and agreements developed by the Ministry; providing the legal examination of the drafts of the decrees, instructions, provisions, rules, regulations and other legal acts of the Ministry;
• providing an analysis and assessment of the Ministry’s legal work, determining the priority areas for its improvement, coordinating the activities of the divisions providing regulatory and legal support which are part of the Ministry’s other departments.