Between Efficiency and Effectiveness

Rechtstheorie. 2015. No. 3. P. 347–366.

Tretyakov S. V.

Why should lawyers study the social context of law and are they capable of doing this? These questions may seem absurd. But unfortunately they are not irrelevant or archaic. Unlike American post-realist jurisprudence, with its influential pragmatic emphasis, the continental legal profession is still resistant to attempts to integrate any sort of analysis of the social impact of law.

Moreover, here in Russia the problem has a special relevance. We have a good text of law, often identical to the best texts of the developed societies. But very often this has nothing to do with reality. Even more, it is often applied not strategically, but for purposes that are directly opposite to those for which similar rules are applied in Western democracies. Often these purposes have nothing to do with the rule of law.

In these circumstances, it becomes apparent for the relevance of legal
implementation. In the following, some of its implications are developed in the paper.

Keywords: эффективность права, law efficiency, force of law, social impact of law, действие права, социальное воздействие права

Publication based on the results of: Functions of Legitimacy of Law (2015)