FAIRNESS AS A PRIVATE LAW PRINCIPLE AND ITS EFFECTIVENESS CRITERION

Abstract

Introduction: the history of legal regulation is connected with the problem of fairness of legal norms (this question was raised in the politico-legal concepts of antiquity, the Middle Ages, New Era and contemporary times). Nowadays, in the context of legislative reforms and search for a balance between private and public interests, the question of fairness has not lost its significance. Not only legal theorists face this question, but legislator comes across it when determining the direction of the legislative deve- lopment. The same question arises when law enforcer has to solve certain legal dispute. The main goal of this research is to determine the value of fairness in the private-law regulation of social relations. Methods: the systematic analysis of the «fairness» category in the aspect of its impact on the modern state of private-law regulation acts as a determining method of the research. This particular method was chosen because it allows revealing the integrity and complex nature of the category under study. Apart from the systematic analysis, during the research general scientific dialectical method of cognition and special methods of investigation (formally legal, comparative law research, method of legal modeling) were also used. Analysis: in the framework of study the main tendencies of private law development in the modern economic and political conditions from the perspective of general legal and private-law approaches have been investigated, inter alia the issue of searching the balance in private and public, personal and common interests in various scopes of private law application. Results: the authors come to the conclusion that the category of fairness is multidimensional. On the one hand, it can serve as a private law principle that stems from the extensive principle of law fairness, and, on the other hand, being the reflection of social compromise, should serve as a criterion of the effectiveness of the private-law regulations on the national and international level.