Regulatory legal acts possess certain characteristics, the presence of which determines their qualities. Historically the development of forms of law in the world followed various tracks, which led to appearance of several legal systems. That is why the notion and the meaning of regulatory legal acts in them does not always coincide. This article presents a notion of private regulatory legal acts and anissue of their presence in the Russian legal system. In that context a notion of regulatory legal act and its characteristics arestudied.