The article reveals the essential characteristics of justice as a specific type of state activity; identifies the main features of justice that distinguish it, on the one hand, from other types of state activity, and on the other - from other types of judicial activity. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyze the features of justice in its modern sense. The versatility of this legal category as an ambivalent definition is reflected in its various characteristics, through the consideration of which the most general definition of justice is formulated in the work. The methodological basis of the article is the modern achievements of the theory of knowledge. In the course of research theoretical, General philosophical (dialectics, system method, analysis, synthesis, deduction), traditional legal methods (formal-logical) were applied. Turning to the question of the characteristics of justice, the author touches upon the problem of its broad and narrow understanding due to the increasing role of mediation, conciliation and arbitration as alternative forms of resolution of legal conflicts, as well as in connection with the empowerment of certain state bodies of jurisdictional powers, and concludes that, unlike a number of foreign countries, justice in Russia can be carried out only by state courts. Of considerable interest is also the study of the subject area of justice, which is related to the situation of legal conflict. In this context, the author's analysis of the concept of "legal conflict" and his proposed differentiation of such conflicts into types with subsequent consideration of each of them is quite legitimate. In the context of the formation of the new Russian statehood, the arbitration sign of justice acquired a different sound, which is considered in the work from the standpoint of the special jurisdictional procedural activity of the court and the situational nature of justice. Since the beginning of the modern judicial reform, objective changes in the activities of the courts associated with the emergence of simplified and writ proceedings that have simplified the procedure for the consideration and resolution of certain categories of administrative and civil cases, as well as the allocation of jurisdictional powers to other state bodies that are not part of the judiciary, but use quasi-judicial procedures, i.e. almost judicial procedures as close as possible to them, have significantly changed the attitude to the procedural form of justice, which has lost its former importance. In this regard, the author substantiates the point of view that nowadays in order to determine the qualitative nature of the jurisdictional bodies, it is necessary to identify, in particular, the distinctive features in each of the procedural forms. Revealing in more detail the content of methods and means of justice, the author touches upon the problem of correlation of this legal category with justice and on the basis of the analysis of different points of view comes to the conclusion that these concepts can not be considered as legal phenomena that coincide in whole or in part. Justice is rather an intrinsic property of justice, contributing to its perception as a social and legal value. As one of the most important signs of justice in the work is considered the state-power nature and reliability of judicial decisions, the execution of which involves the suppression of the will (freedom) or material deprivation of one of the parties with the use in certain cases of power and force of the state. In this regard, some attention is paid to the characterization of the binding nature of the judgment as one of its essential properties. Examining justice as categories which help to reveal the contents and legal merits of this form of state activity, in the definition of the given concept into a single, unified definition.
ON THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE STATE ACTIVITY OF PETER I