From “Smart Regulation” to “Smart Law Enforcement”: What Prevents Conceptual Transformation?

Introduction: although the concepts of “high-quality (“smart,” “better”) law enforcement” have been introduced into academic discourse, their conceptual development has progressed much more slowly compared to the related idea of “high-quality regulation.” Analyzing the factors that hinder the advancement of this theoretical field is of significant scientific interest, given the novelty and contentious nature of these issues, as well as their fragmented treatment in Russian jurisprudence. Methods: the methodological framework for the research consists of the general scientific, dialectical, formal legal, historical and comparative law, logical-syntactic, and semantic methods of cognition, as well as the methods of cause-effect analysis, forecasting, synthesis, and analysis. Results: the study describes the main ideas of “high-quality law enforcement,” shows the features of their formation in various legal systems, and analyzes the problems of conceptualization. The paper substantiates the conclusions regarding the relationship of new approaches to regulation with the development of both “classical” law enforcement and alternative dispute resolution tools, as well as possible prospects for relevant processes.