Methodological Aspects of the Dynamics of Legal Relationships as a Social and Legal Phenomenon

The article is devoted to the study of legal relationship as a phenomenon that exists in two modes of being of law: legal reality and legal validity. Classical approaches to the definition of a legal relationship as a social relationship regulated by law are criticized. The understanding of the legal relationship as a result of the implementation of legal norm is also criticized. It is recognized that these approaches do not fully provide a scientific characteristic of legal relationships as a social and legal phenomenon. Instead of the usually distinguished elements of a legal relationship in the form of a subject, object and content, it is proposed to study its dynamic parameters. The dynamics of a legal relationship is considered as a result of the intentionality of the legal consciousness of its subject. In legal reality, a legal relationship is studied as a social action in the conditions of adaptation of the subject to the environment. This legal relationship is due to the general normativity of biological, social and technical origin. The vital normativity of legal reality is considered as a determinant of legal relations. The locus of control in this legal relationship is focused on the subject exercising its rights and fulfilling its obligations. In legal validity, the legal relationship is due to the intentionality of the legal consciousness of the subject to implement legal norms through legal interaction with other participants in the legal relationship. The normativity of legal reality is based on legal regulation through legal acts (individual and general). In such a legal relationship, the subjects exercise their legal capabilities to the fulfillment of the legal duties assigned to other subjects. The locus of control is shifted to other participants in the legal relationship who exercise their rights and perform legal duties. In legal interaction, mutual recognition of the right is provided by the instance and/or the party of the legal relationship. In the legal validity, the physical, social and value, as well as vital normativity are supplemented by legal normativity. It is designed to neutralize social contradictions caused by the limitations of space, as well as the irreversibility of time. It is proved that the proposed concept of legal relations contributes to the solution of practical issues of the primacy of the legal norm or legal relationship, the revision of the criteria for differentiation of the legal system, the determination of the ratio of legal relations and offenses, the scientific consideration of some sectoral problems of the classification of legal relations. It is noted that the proposed concept of a legal relationship as a social action or legal interaction is quite conditional and applicable for cognitive purposes. In practice, quite often there is an intersection or mutual overlap of one type with another, a transition from legal reality to legal reality.

Ukrainian Central Council as Revolutionary Parliament of Ukraine

The revolution of 1917-1921 is a bright page in the centuries-old history of the Ukrainian state. The special place in it belongs to Ukrainian Central Council (CCU), under the leadership of which Ukraine went through the difficult path of building its own state from autonomy to the proclamation of Ukrainian National Republic and its full state independence and sovereignty. Therewith, the CCU attempted to introduce democratic institutions and parliamentary forms of government. The relevance of the study is explained by the fact that this experience left a noticeable mark on the legal consciousness of Ukrainians and the attempt to build a parliamentary model has a considerable impact on the solution of modern problems of state creation. The purpose of the study is to analyse the organisation of Ukrainian Central Council as a parliamentary institution in the conditions of the revolution. A retrospective study of the CCU experience reflects the political interests of different groups of society, is useful for understanding modern problems of parliamentarism, the interaction of civil society and the state. The methodological basis for studying the structure, composition of the CCU, its legal forms of activity is based on philosophical, general scientific, and historical-legal methods of scientific knowledge. These methods allowed determining the main task of the CCU – the revival of Ukraine. It is concluded that state revival, as a constituent task which could be carried out only by a representative body that would be established on democratic principles, its composition would express the will of the people, and, if it had sufficient organisational and legal resources to fulfil this task (a stable structure, organisational and legal forms of activity, an effective auxiliary apparatus, the corresponding status of the deputies, the optimal work schedule)

The concept of normal legal consciousness

The article argues the expediency and importance of using the concept of “normal legal awareness” in legal science and practice. An attempt has been made to identify and substantiate its criteria, which make it possible to distinguish between normal (healthy) and abnormal (unhealthy, defective, deformed) legal consciousness. Recommendations are formulated that can be overcome by the relativity criteria of the normality of legal consciousness.

Some features of legal consiousness and legal literacy in Russia and abroad

The purpose of the research. The research is aimed at identifying characteristic features, types and components of legal consciousness, the elements of its structure and its functions which help to realize legal attitudes in different legal situations from the point of view of Russian and Anglo-American law. The authors point out the influence of legal stereotypes and attitudes on the formation of an individual’s legal consciousness. Another element closely connected with the concept of legal consciousness is legal literacy, which helps an individual to socialize. Having analyzed the differences between the approaches to the concepts of legal literacy in Russian and Anglo-American legal culture the authors hold an opinion that legal literacy directly depends on the possibilities an individual has to obtain information about his legal rights and duties. Lack of such knowledge leads to negative legal consequences. Conclusions: The results of the study showed that in order to increase legal literacy it is necessary to form «positive» legal stereotypes and attitudes. One of the ways to succeed in it may be studying, analysis and discussion of legal texts in a foreign language. Such approach is used at Moscow State Linguistic University for the training of law students. Methodology and technique of the study. During the study of the concepts of «legal awareness» and «legal literacy», their formation and application by members of the legal profession and non-lawyers, the authors of the study used such generally recognized methods as general philosophical (dialectic, system method, analysis). In addition, a comparative analysis was made of the concepts studied in the Russian and Anglo-American legal culture. The article also presents the results of a survey of undergraduate students, which made it possible to assess the impact of the study of legal texts in a foreign language on the formation of legal stereotypes and attitudes.

The Problem of Natural Law in the Works of Ivan Ilyin and Leo Strauss

This article provides a comparative analysis of two interpretations and methodological strategies of substantiating the idea of natural law, which belong to Ivan Ilyin and Leo Strauss. The comparative method was used in the research process, while the problem-topic method was applied to the analysis and presentation of the material. The two interpretations of natural law were compared on the basis of the following criteria: 1) interpretation of the principle of historicism and assessment of its prospects for substantiating natural legal thinking; 2) correlation between natural and positive law; 3) interpretation of the essence of philosophy, relationship between the general understanding of the nature of philosophical knowledge and the principles of natural legal thinking; 4) correlation between law and religion. Both Ilyin and Strauss saw in natural law an invariant basis of positive law. Criticism of the principle of historicism (understood as relativism) is a conceptual prerequisite for the reactualization of the idea of natural law in the works of both philosophers. However, Ilyin sees in historicism an annoying prejudice and a product of a “sick” legal consciousness, while Strauss views historicism as the main challenge facing the classical philosophical tradition. The differences in the substantiation of natural law by the two philosophers stem from the differences in their understanding of the nature of philosophical knowledge. For Ilyin, philosophy begins with studying the meaning of axioms, while for Strauss, philosophy as “knowledge of ignorance” begins with a critical formulation and comprehension of fundamental questions. The most significant differences in the philosophical and legal concepts of Ilyin and Strauss are associated with the problem of the relationship between law and religion. According to Strauss, the universal rationaltheoretical substantiation of the idea of natural law cannot refer to religious experience and be based on revelation. According to Ilyin, the reference of the philosophy of law to religious experience is necessary, because normal legal consciousness has an essentially religious nature.

The Influence of the Social Environment on the Formation of Crime in Minors

The article examines the influence of the criminal subculture on the formation of juvenile delinquency. The analysis of the influence of the criminal subculture on the formation of the legal consciousness of minors is carried out, the conditions and processes of deformation of the personality of minors, the emergence of a tendency to illegal behavior and the commission of offenses are considered.

FORMS OF EXISTENCE OF LAW IN THE PEDAGOGICAL THEORY AND PRACTICE OF AS MAKARENKO

The article deals with the problem of using the experience of AS Makarenko in modern educational practice, in particular, the legal education of children and youth. A.S. As a teacher, Makarenko left a lot of evidence of how juvenile delinquents became law-abiding citizens. From these positions, the forms of existence of law, reflected in its theoretical and practical heritage, are of considerable interest for the implementation of effective educational impact on young people.In the context of the children's team, whose members were freed from anarchic, criminal in many ways on the basis of upbringing and education, such forms (levels) of law as legal consciousness (awareness of the need to coexist on legal grounds) can be traced; legal norms - orderly rules that everyone who did not want to be outside the human community was forced to follow; legal relations - a system of relations that, providing the requests of the individual, did not contradict the most universally recognized requests of the whole community.The author concludes that analyzing the experience of A.S. Makarenko and considering the law as an order of social relations, which is manifested in the actions and behavior of people, we observe in the institutions headed by a prominent teacher, the personal progress of students as conscious subjects of legal relations. There is reason to conclude that this process reflects the main goals and means of Makarenko's educational system as such and further study will reveal more generalized, and therefore important for today's conditions, pedagogical principles of legal education of children and youth.

LAW AS A VALUE, VALUES IN LAW (PART TWO)

The paper deals with the category of "values", the Rights as a value, and fundamental values of law; including freedom, justice, and equality have been analyzed.The relevance of the research is determined not only by the apparent lack of exploration of the problem but also by the fact that the value of rights and legal values determine direction and meaning, as well as the content of the rules of law, which is their normative expression, and, ultimately, appearing as a kind of basis for the legal culture, the source of the formation of the legal consciousness and establishing legal order, ensuring the efficiency of legal regulation due to the using the embodiment in reality of freedom, justice, equality.Legal norms themselves acquire the importance of values and become the subject of evaluation. Among values themselves, which act as an ideal justification of law rules, the law rules themselves and assessments, on the one hand, there are not only close ties but also mutual transitions. Therefore, both their interrelated explanations and differentiation are necessary.

Development of English Legal Positivism from Bentham to Salmond and Brown: Leading Ideas in the Context of the Common Law Tradition

This article examines the peculiarities of the evolution of English legal positivism, which was the only direction of understanding law formed by professional lawyers, expressing the specifics of their legal consciousness, focused on understanding positive law and the practice of its implementation. The authors examine the key concepts that define the historical trajectory and problem field of legal positivism in the Anglo-American tradition, analyzing the legal teachings of T. Hobbes, D. Hume, J. Bentham, J. Austin, M. Hale, W. Blackstone, J. W. Salmond and W. J. Brown. The attention is drawn to the fact that Salmond lays down objections to the concept of law as a rule of the state and considers its main shortcomings. In his work “Jurisprudence or the Theory of Law”, Salmond presents the flaws and omissions of the “imperative theory of law”, among the proponents of which he names T. Hobbes, S. von Pufendorf, J. Bentham and J. Austin. Brown believes that the essence of law can be expressed by a set of three concepts: “will”, “command” and “reason”, and the just conception of law implies recognition of the elements of unity, growth and growth that is consciously directed towards the realization and achievement of the goal.

Human Rights in the Context of Asian and European Legal Values

This article substantiates the need to consolidate human rights through various international legal mechanisms, including regional conventions on human rights that reflect specific legal and cultural values. The authors analyzed the Oriental legal values that differ from those in the Occidental. Borrowed elements of foreign culture and standard legal norms do not provide effective implementation of international documents at the national level. In fact, a lot of contemporary conflicts originate in the gap between the official legal ideology and the traditional legal consciousness, which is typical of most Asian countries. The interdisciplinary and civilizational (sociocultural) approaches revealed that most Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries adhere to the so-called Asian values, e.g. collectivism; priority of family, clan, and nation interests; idealization of the authorities; detachment from active political and legal life, adherence to moral norms, etc. The authors believe that, along with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there may be regional concepts and international regional acts based on civilizational identity, historical memory and experience. Eurasian countries need a new concept of human rights, which will combine universal and Asian legal values, e.g. priority of the community and state over the individual; the advantage of public order over the personal rights and freedoms; common wellbeing; significance of moral and religious rules; admiration for strong political leaders, etc. This concept will make it possible to integrate Asian mentality, lore, and national philosophy into standard human rights. The concept might help to resolve various conflicts that occur between global legal ideology and traditional legal mentality of most Asian societies.