Политико-правовая традиция Востока: проблема понимания

Abstract

The article deals with the complex legal tradition (the tradition of traditions) of the East determining the ways of civilizational development of all non-European peoples being involved in the non-Western cultural ecumene. It is noted that the complex Eastern legal tradition has received an ambiguous assessment in the theoretical and legal discourse. Its various interpretations being repletet with negative connotations are largely associated with ideological preferences stemming from the liberal idea that there is no law in the East, and Eastern despotism has preserved political culture for many years making it an appendage of totalitarian statehood. Ideological cliches are repeated from one textbook to another, they are met in a range of monographs on foreign history and the history of political and legal thought. This article provides an alternative view on the understanding of Eastern statehood with its attributes of “duty”, “responsibility”, “collectivism” having become fundamental staples of the Eastern complex legal tradition. It is noted that the material conditions of social life and the mentality projected on the state-legal life have created a special type of public administration, which contrary to forecasts of an “imminent death”, shows miracles of vitality to this day. The article describes in sufficient detail the Confucian doctrine with its non-legal from the point of view of Western culture methods of education and edification, which in fact became a prologue to the communitarian projects of the future. The article proves that the study of the fundamental provisions of the Eastern tradition makes it possible to question the established narratives that “the past of the West is in the East” and “the East is the resource margin of the advanced world”. The modern world is multi-faceted, so understanding the Eastern complex legal tradition gives reason to better understand yourself through the prism of another. Therefore, the article actualizes the understanding that the Eastern type of legal tradition has an internal logic of development and this type is neither better nor worse than the Western one.