The article formulates a definition of emergency regulation as a special type of legal regulation. Various authors referring the legal regulation of extraordinary circumstances use such concepts as an «emergency mode», «special regime», «state of emergency», etc. Extraordinary legal regime is a special order of settlement of activities, actions and behavior of individuals and legal entities in different spheres of social relations. Modes of emergency and martial law are characterized by some common features. The emergency legal regime is based on the imperative method of legal exposure, which includes various legal means of regulation. Emergency legal regulation is regulated by the law of the state in the process of state’s influencing the participants of public relations with respect to the problems in the state, the removal of which is impossible without the use of extraordinary measures. Legal means, typical for emergency legal regulation, are constitutional, have a material nature and respond the protecting the rights and freedoms of the man and citizen, the constitutional order of the state.