СУЧАСНА ЗАГАЛЬНА ТЕОРІЯ ПРАВА ТА ДЕРЖАВИ: ТЕНДЕНЦІЇ РОЗВИТКУ

Abstract

The article deals with the main features of the modern general theory of law as a discipline taught to law students and as a legal science. It is established that the theory of law develops in the direction of the implementation of general theoretical provisions, the fundamentalisation of the study of basic provisions of the theory of law, pluralization of approaches to the study of legal phenomena and structures, the extension of the subject of study (the content and forms of general theoretical disciplines), the combination of theory of law and philosophy of law. The presence of common tendencies in the general theory of law is justified by examples of the use of general theoretical provisions in the law-making, law-interpreting and law-enforcement practice. Today, a number of topics are considered inseparable from the law-regulative activity, namely: a normative-legal act, a system of normative-legal acts of Ukraine, law-making, law-interpretation, and law-implementation. Only at the level of the theory of law the ways of interpreting explanations are observed, serving as the ideological basis for interpreting explanations, although they are often referred to in legal interpretative acts as the basis for formulating a certain position. The provisions of the theory of law also apply to law-enforcement activities, such as the defining of an individual legal act and a list of general requirements for law-enforcement. Doctrinal approaches to the structuring of law-enforcement acts today have received their normative fixation in domestic procedural codes. The theory of law does not lose its general and methodological character. Fundamental studies are required for such topics as “Sources of Law”, “Law”, “Legal Act”. In the theory of law, there is widespread pluralism regarding generally accepted theoretical propositions. Advanced study is required for a number of topics within the discipline of “Theory and Philosophy of Law”, such as the topic of “Law-understanding”. The need for a fundamental study of individual issues becomes the objective basis for the introduction of new training courses in the curricula, in particular: “International Standards of Human Rights Protection” and “Legal Logic”. The combination of theory and philosophy of law is formally confirmed at the state standard level. The combination of the fundamental science of law (knowledge, which is offered primarily by the philosophy of law) and the theoretical foundations of legal regulation in modern society (formed precisely at the level of theory of law) is objectively conditioned by the need. The necessity and importance of updating the theory of law as a science (with its subject of study of legal phenomena) as well as educational discipline (which offers initial and conceptual knowledge of law) are stated.