Law and Justice: Russian Social Development in Modern and Recent Times

Social Sciences. 2017. Vol. 48. No. 1. P. 65–76.

Медушевский А. Н.

The conflict between positive law and the idea of justice has always been the driver of transitional social orders. The Russian legal system as a historical phenomenon can only be understood in the context of the changing etymology of the concept of justice interpreted as a moral value, a legal phenomenon and a historical tradition. In keeping with this approach the author reconstructs the key characteristics inherent in the Russian legal tradition, the stages of their transformation during the course of modernization processes in the 18th-19th centuries, their wholesale destruction during the Soviet era and restoration in the post-Soviet period. Current debate on law and legal consciousness highlights the importance of some elements of the national legal tradition, but is incapable of reaffirming the conservative theory of "the rut" in Russian legal and political development. The author urges the need to develop a new concept of justice which would overcome legal dualism, bridge the gap between positive law and conservative mental stereotypes in order to implement the necessary liberal program of social and political reform.

Ключевые слова: law, bureaucracy, constitutionalism, legal tradition, legal dualism