The essence and originality of the Russian legal consciousness in the modern period: a theoretical clarification

Abstract

Aim a theoretical concretization of the essence and originality of the legal consciousness of modern Russian citizens. The following argument is the basic one: socio-philosophical analytics is immanent to historically established theories of legal understanding and legal consciousness. The author speaks on the history of the legal foundations in Russian statehood and identifies the specifics of legal understanding. The theories of state and law of B.N. Chicherin and I.A. Ilyin, as well as the socio-philosophical (libertarian) theory of law of V.S. Nersesyants are discussed. The originality of legal consciousness is proved to have been determined by the specifics of a particular time. Thus, some legal theorizations were created by B.N. Chicherin on the eve of the abolition of serfdom, by I.A. Ilyin on the eve and after the revolution of 1917, and by V.S. Nersesyants at the end of the Soviet period in the history of Russia. The theorizations of law undertaken by these thinkers can also be considered as their individual legal consciousness. Despite the ideological diversity, the theoretical constructions of B.N. Chicherin, I.A. Ilyin and V.S. Nersesyants (as well as their legal consciousness) are related by the presence of the idea of justice (equality). The basic principle of law is truth as the identity of justice (B.N. Chicherin). The legal consciousness of a person as a statement of his "own spirituality" presupposes a special equality recognition of the "spirituality of other people" (I.A. Ilyin). The idea of equal norms and measures for all (social equality), freedom and justice are the main elements of law (V.S. Nersesyants). The idea of justice (equality) is stated as a certain theoretical inertia and included in socio-philosophical theoretical constructions (A.G. Sabirov, A.E. Makhovikov). Today, at the next turning point in both Russian and world history, the legal consciousness of Russians is also discussed through the peculiar property of dialectical transformation inherent in it "in accordance", "in favor" or "contrary" to reality. It is indicated that today, equality and justice as specific Russian features of individual and mass legal consciousness presuppose, among other things, a twofold observance of legal self-discipline both by citizens themselves and by a legal state of social type.