Abstract: The formal structure of a legal system is an organic whole composed of all the cur rent legal norms of the country which is organized according to their hierarchical relations of legal validity，including the forms and the validity relations of laws． An important purpose and value function of the Legislation Law in China is to develop and improve the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics by regulating its formal structure． In recent years，with economic and so cial development and continuous deepening of reform and opening up，new situations have e merged and new developments have been made in China relating to the form of the legal norms that constitute the legal system，including the strengthening of foreign － related legislation，the a doption of a large number of“decisions on legal issues”，the authorization of the formulation of regulations on supervision，regulations of Pudong New Area，regulations of Hainan Free Trade Port，and rules of China Coast Guard，the creation of regional coordinated legislation，etc.. In a mending the Legislation Law，China should study in a comprehensive and systematic way and give response to the theoretical and practical issues relating to the nature，status，legislative title，scope of powers，legal effect，rules of application，and recordation and review of each of these new forms of legal norms，so as to realize the function of the Law of regulating the normative forms and the order of the legal effect of all the norms in the legal system．

Keywords: Legislative Law; legal system; formal structure; the form of law; the effect of law

Author:Liu Xiaomei, research fellow and doctoral supervisor, Institute of International Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Source: 6 (2022) Law Science Magazine, (first released by CNKI).