Perceived Gaps in Public Procurement Legislation

Abstract

The article raises a complex question about the existence of imaginary gaps in the law and the gap in the law as such. The author attempts to refute the search for gaps where there are not and should not be, using the example of Russian legislation on public procurement. The article analyzes four situations in which the author demonstrates unacceptable filling of imaginary gaps in administrative and judicial practice, challenges judicial intervention in the will of the parties when imputing the socalled splitting of purchases, and also shows that the imaginary gap penetrates the legislative process. The author concludes that the absence of legislative regulation should be perceived not as a gap, but as a signal to individual regulation, i.e. at the discretion of the subject of law.