Jurisprudence in the public sense is a complex and always modern issue. The approach to understanding law as a concept arose at the moments of the development of society. He underwent changes along with the history of society and the state. For more than two thousand years, humanity has not come to a single point of view regarding the category of law. Many works of the most famous philosophers of the world are devoted to this problem, which remains unsolvable to this day. None of the huge number of definitions reveals the essence of this concept completely.
Understanding Law in Ancient Greece
With the onset of slavery, the need arose to streamline concepts and related categories. Aristotle ("Politics") and Plato ("State") once addressed this topic. They were the first to attempt to systematize the knowledge accumulated in this field.
The modern approach to understanding law is acute in today's Russia. The sharp change in the political system in the country gave rise to confusion in the thoughts of representatives of the older generation. Young people in the transition period were for some time released from the care of the state and deprived of the opportunity to build causal relationships. All this led to a vacuum of legal knowledge and the reluctance of the population to understand the steps taken by the government in one direction or another. What are the features of the modern approach to understanding law, today it is important to consider. A comprehensive consideration of this issue has long acquired its relevance, including for the practical activities of lawyers.
How did the right appear?
According to historians, the prerequisites for the emergence of law are internal contradictions in society, the complication of relations between its representatives. Jurisprudence has a regulatory effect on society, promotes orderliness, stability and the rule of law. It happens as follows:
- As a result of the influence of world culture, law contributes to the consolidation of spiritual values in society.
- It, as an effective tool of educational influence, contributes to the formation of the need for positive behavior. This happens through the creation of laws and regulations.
- The right acts as a means of control over representatives of society, imposing certain sanctions on violators of generally accepted norms.
The relevance of studying approaches to understanding law
The population of the country is protected by the right from anyone who encroaches on their freedoms by imposing punishment on each violator. The essence of jurisprudence consists of the following factors:
- consolidation of justice;
- struggle against arbitrariness.
It is natural that the words “law” and “justice” are cognate. Of course, in the current situation, insufficient respect for this category has become one of the socio-scientific problems of concern to society. A legal culture cannot develop without the need of every citizen to comply with its standards that determine his civic position and an individual modern approach to understanding law. The correlation of law with socio-political gradations here is a fundamental factor, a certain basis for the formation and perception of legality.
Approaches to understanding modern law and their social significance
Over time, many positions have changed regarding the situation of society and the state. Before modern approaches to understanding law were established, the correlation of law and law under the influence of different eras remained practically unchanged. Although Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the era of capitalism and the period of active planting of communist ideas left their imprints on the formation of its definition.
A modern approach to understanding law is a particular way of interpreting and interpreting a term as such. It follows that jurisprudence is a subject of jurisprudence. The knowledge industry defines the concept of law and its categories at each stage of social development. In addition to scientific significance, the concept has a practical effect on the formation of citizens' legal consciousness, lawmaking, and legal activity. This is a complex phenomenon. The legal perception of citizens depends on it. The concept is interpreted and manifested in different countries in different countries, with different socio-political systems.
What may be right?
The theory does not have a single interpretation of the described concept. Only similar areas can be distinguished:
- law is a socially significant structural element of any society;
- it acts as a means of regulating behavior, determining the order both in society as a whole and between individual citizens.
From a large number of definitions, the following concepts can be distinguished, which reveal the essence of the concept. Understanding of law can be natural-legal, normative, moral and sociological.
Features of the natural legal approach
If we consider separately modern approaches to understanding law, the natural law takes a separate position here. And this is not surprising. Positive law, known since ancient times, acts along with natural law. By the way, it is often called natural. Throughout its existence, mankind has tried to develop effective standards of behavior and thinking, defining them in mythology, religious context, morality, etc.
However, the state model was a society with opposite polar interests, where the adopted legislative acts in the predominant number guaranteed the protection of the wealthy segments of the population. And only today, in the conditions of the rule of law, is the positive and natural-legal approach to understanding the concept as close as possible to each other.
Specificity
A normative understanding of a concept implies considering it as a series of provisions from laws and by-laws, which only formally separates the system norm and the form of legal science. It traces the features of the modern approach to understanding law and a number of shortcomings:
- Narrow or narrow regulatory understanding of law. This refers to the text of a legally binding document.
- The inability to influence the law on the relationship of people.
- Its definition as a state tool to achieve the goal.
- The inability to adequately assess the conformity of state acts with the interests of citizens.
- Unjustified decrease in the value of the economic situation, social moods in the life of society and exaggeration of the role of lawmaking.
- Lack of democracy.
- Restriction of the rights and freedoms of citizens.
These shortcomings served as the reason for the search for other types of understanding of law.
Sociological Approach to Understanding Law
The essence of the sociological approach to understanding law is to consider the industry itself and its legal relations in action. Only in this case, according to famous sociologists, can it be called “living”. According to S. A. Muromtsev, by law is understood the aggregate legal relations. Adherents of this approach consider the concept as a specific public order. In addition, they consider laws as part of the law and recognize the primacy of family ties, the interaction of property and power relations, which, in turn, historically determine the occurrence of legal provisions.
Regulatory theory accuses adherents of a sociological approach of devaluing legitimate authority. As a positive grain of the sociological perception of law, the course on the study of its interaction with different parts of the structure of society and the identification of the action of legal mechanisms is noted.
The approach to understanding the rule of law in modern society
This concept divides the laws into the following varieties:
- Legal. They are based on law. Fix what happened in society.
- Wrong. These are normative acts, weakly connected with reality.
Modern general social approaches to understanding law, in particular, consist in encouraging the legislator to study what is happening in society and to reflect this in the laws being created taking into account economic changes and social relations. At the same time, when applying this approach, it is difficult to distinguish legal from such that it is not. It is also not always possible to determine whether a relationship is legal. In such a situation, the role of the court increases, since relations are built according to the agreement, the main role of which is emphasized. This is an American concept.
Moral approach to understanding law
Modern approaches to legal understanding and a general social approach to law in a moral context give the concept as a set of defined norms a meaningful characteristic. And considers it in the context of compliance with positive ratings. In such a consideration, only fair standards are entitled to exist. Those that meet the level of freedom of society. The bottom line is that the object of evaluation here is not the concept itself, but only its principles.
Positive signs of the approach:
- law is considered only in the context of positive phenomena: democracy, freedom, etc .;
- the legislator is focused on the positive values of social structure in his activities.
Among the negative: the difficulty in distinguishing the "right" from the "wrong." In addition, the question of the existence of a concept outside the law is not considered.
A brief overview of all modern approaches to understanding law
Each of the above approaches has its advantages and disadvantages. From the point of view of each of them, law is not considered outside the norms, relations and ideas. To one degree or another, the signs of each of the approaches to understanding the concept are present in any society. Which of the positions will become dominant? Will it affect lawmaking and legal relations? Will the authority in society deserve? It all depends on certain conditions. The efforts of scientists and the level of scientific development are fading into the background. First of all, the social situation, the degree of development of society and modern approaches to understanding law are taken into account. Briefly describe the advantages and disadvantages of them is appropriate:
- From the officially recognized approach to understanding the subject depends on how it is determined in what way the law develops in a particular society.
- Regulatory adopted where society is subordinate to power. An example is a state with a totalitarian regime.
- The sociological approach "gives the green light" to the social structure.
- relationships come to the fore. The state and society are loyal to each other. And as a result, the power is losing its position. An example is a state with decentralized governance.
- With a moral approach, law focuses on the ideas of equality and fraternity, freedom and justice. This happens in a society where morality, its ideas are valued, a separation of powers is observed. This is a democratic country.
To understand what are the features of the modern approach to understanding law in our state today, it is worth turning to the recent situation of the legal system in Russia. For a long time she was under the gun of a normative understanding of law. Moral and sociological approaches were manifested only in some elements.
How is the right approach to understanding law being formed in Russia?
The modern social structure should include the concept of a moral understanding of law. In this perspective, jurisprudence is considered as a regulator of behavior in society. She is able to measure the level of responsibility, freedom of citizens. It is extremely important to take into account the timeliness of legal education. In many developed countries, the process of establishing legal independence of citizens begins from an early age. Future full-fledged representatives of society should have a reliable objective idea of what legality, law, responsibility, etc.
The current educational system of Russia in accordance with the Federal State Educational Standard of Secondary Education implies the introduction of disciplines into the educational process that actively influence the formation of a civic position and understanding of jurisprudence among schoolchildren. The development of the lesson “Modern Approaches to Understanding Law” is an important element of the learning process. His tasks include:
- Familiarization with the variety of approaches to understanding law, the concept of "human rights".
- Demonstration of differences, advantages and disadvantages between each approach.
- Assisting in the recognition of positive law through the value of inalienable rights.
- Disclosure of the interdependence between each of the approaches to understanding law.
Conclusion
At the same time, the essence of law is characterized by the ability to recognize the choice of a citizen to act at will. And also the absence of any kind of coercion. But it is important to understand that freedom and law are different categories. The latter cannot exist outside of society and the people living in it. It is formed in their relationship, associated with their capabilities. This means that law defines the boundaries of freedom. It is her measure. In turn, the modern approach to understanding law, whether it is normative or natural-legal, sociological or moral, is still an object of internal contradictions in society.