Housing law and its functions

Introduction: the article presents a branch-wise study of housing law functions, which is a topical subject nowadays. This research appears to be timely as the functions of housing law have been insufficiently studied in modern scientific literature. In the author's opinion, the problem of identifying, analyzing and describing the functions of housing law is connected with the following problems: recognizing housing law as a separate branch of law, revealing the correlation between the "housing law " and “housing legislation ” concepts, and, most importantly, drawing boundaries and parallels between housing, civil and administrative law along with defining the functional differences between these branches. The purpose of this article is to solve a problem which is important for the development of modern housing law - to elaborate the theory of housing law functions. The objectives of the present research are as follows: to justify the current relevance of researching the functions of housing law; to study the concept "functions of law"; to determine their correlation with the purpose of law, its objectives and principles, the subject and method of legal regulation. Methods: general scientific methods (formal and dialectical logic, comparison, description, structural and functional analysis, synthesis, classification, interpretation), specific scientific methods (legal-dogmatic), theoretical methods (formal and dialectical logic, structural and functional analysis, legal-dogmatic), empirical methods (comparison, description, interpretation, classification). The following axioms shall be recognized as the results of the present research: it is essential to distinguish between such phenomena as “functions of law” and “functions of the legal system”; it is necessary to stop equating the interacting but not coinciding functions of law and functions of the state; such categories as “functions of law”, “objectives of legal regulation”, “principles of law” should be recognized as not coinciding but interdependent and mutually determining phenomena. Conclusions: the author suggests understanding the role (purpose, mission) of law being its inherent phenomenon as the functions of housing law.