The Department of Legal Support is a structural subdivision of the Staff of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia which has 2 divisions within its internal structure:

1.   Division for Development of Legal Acts

2.   Division for Provision of Clarifications

The Department of Legal Support of the Staff of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia is responsible for the development of draft legal acts within the scope of powers of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia for the purpose of improving the legislation of the Republic of Armenia. This function shall include the development of completely new draft legal acts that are being developed to regulate relations that are still not regulated, as well as introduction of amendments and supplements to the legal acts that have already been adopted and entered into force. The need for the Department to develop completely new draft legal acts may be conditioned by a number of factors such as contrasting interpretation of law in the judicial practice, acts adopted by the European Court of Human Rights or the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Armenia, international commitments assumed by the Republic of Armenia, ineffectiveness of legal regulation identified based on the results of the monitoring of application of regulatory legal acts, requirements of legal acts having a higher legal force, etc. The requirement to develop relevant draft legal acts may be envisaged by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Armenia, the Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia or short-term or long-term action plans approved by another legal act having a higher legal force.

The functions of the Department include the development of concept papers when developing draft legal acts providing for new approaches to the regulation of comprehensive social relations or being more significant. The development of a concept paper is an important safeguard for the implementation of well balanced law-making activities.

The Department is also responsible for analysis of the current legislation of the Republic of Armenia, which also implies identification of gaps in the legislation, inconsistencies and other shortcomings and development of legal acts aimed at eliminating the identified gaps, inconsistencies and shortcomings.

One of the most important functions of the Department is the organising of circulation of draft legal acts on the introduction of amendments and supplements to both newly developed and already adopted legal acts. This means submission of developed draft legal acts to other state and non-state bodies, organising of discussions on drafts, surveys, summarisation and submission of the draft to the Staff of the Government of the Republic of Armenia.

In addition to developing draft legal acts, the Department may also draft recommendations with regard to improvement of the legislation of the Republic of Armenia and submit them to the responsible bodies of the field for consideration.

In addition to the mentioned functions, the Department of Legislation, pursuant to Article 87 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On legal acts", prepares drafts for official clarification of legal acts. This function shall be performed by the Division for Provision of Clarification of the Department. Draft clarifications shall be drawn up in cases when legal acts contain wording that may cause imprecise or contrasting perceptions. Draft clarifications are also drawn up in cases when the legal act contradicts another legal act having a higher or equal legal force or when different provisions of the same legal act contradict each other for the purpose of determining the date of entry into force of the legal act, clarifying the issues of legal force, as well as clarifying other issues which have arisen as regards application of the legal act. It should be noted that the Department drafts official clarifications of the legal acts which are applied by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia. Moreover, the official clarifications of the mentioned legal acts may be provided exclusively by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia.

Powers of the Department also include drafting response letters to various enquiries submitted by the Deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia regarding the legislation of the Republic of Armenia, as well as responding to the letters of the citizens and non-governmental organisations of the Republic of Armenia and, where necessary, organising consultations on any issue with the participation of citizens and representatives of non-governmental organisations, etc.