Based on fundamentally new approaches to regulate civil relations — from the perspective of civil society and market economy — the subject of civil law and its methodological foundations  are  researched. The subject and the method of legal regulation are correlated in order to determine which of them is primary in the process of legal regulation and legal entities formation. The structure of the subject of civil law is analyzed. The questions related to the place of civil law in the system of law, in particular in the system of private and public law, are considered. In terms of systematization of civil law norms, characteristic of its system is given. General conclusion is drawn that with the renewal and deepening of private principles to regulate public relations at the present stage, the subject of civil law regulation is expanding due to the coverage of new public relations by privte law, which causes corresponding changes in the civil law system that characterize the process of its further institutionalization.