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Право и нравственность: этические кодексы как инструмент публично-правовой политики России
The communist morality created in the USSR to form a “new man” was based on a code of moral values that replaced traditional religious ideas with the ideological postulates of a one-party dictator ship. The crisis and collapse of this ideology in post-Soviet Russia led to the emergence of an “ethi cal vacuum” — moral anomie, where previous moral principles ceased to operate, and new ones lost their universal character, the rigidity of coercion and the effectiveness of a social regulator. Ideologi cal pluralism has transformed into ethical pluralism. The 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federa tion established the liberal principle of ideological diversity, but at the same time — the neutrality of the state in relation to the moral values of society. The result was the launch of spontaneous self regulation of moral values that lie outside and beyond constitutional principles. This process was expressed in the emergence of various ethical codes, defending almost opposite ideas about morality and the methods of its affirmation, from those completely loyal to constitutional norms to those devi ating from and even contrary to constitutional provisions. Currently, the opposite trend has become prevalent: the state (after the adoption of 2020 amendments) declares its return to the sphere of regulation of moral values of society, making efforts to specifically promote priorities in this area. This defines the range of problems of this article which aims to determine the changing relationship between moral and legal regulators of social behavior, reconstructing a special area of a “moral con stitutionalism” — values, norms and practices that formally lie outside the sphere of legal regula tion, but in fact determine the degree of its acceptance and effectiveness in public policy. If we admit that modern society is already beyond conventional virtue, then what should be the moral founda tions of the constitutional order: are they rooted in tradition, rational choice or the provisions of the current law; should legal policy proceed from the maximum or minimum of morality in the adoption of legal guarantees? Do ethical codes replace the provisions of the Constitution when interpreting the meaning of the most important principles and norms, and does the practice of their centralized implementation replace a conscious civic position with false disciplined enthusiasm? An analysis of modern Russian ethical codes, despite all their differences, makes only one thing clear. The transition from moral absolutism to pluralism of moral values is a difficult process that requires active ad justment from the standpoint of a verified public policy. Its main trend is independent social media tion of moral values, which involves their assessment from the standpoint of constitutionalism and fundamental demands for the development of society.