Institutional Approach to Determining the Law in Russia

Abstract

When we consider regulation system of social relations, the first thing that comes into one’s mind is the legal regime. But while carrying out the analysis of the concept of social relations by the means of the law, mite is important to understand what the law is and what the role of the law is, as well as its principles and basics, otherwise the analysis will be unreliable. Consequently, we should mark out that the problem of the essential definition of law arises. The existing traditions of law enforcement are usually referred to in order to solve this problem. In the system of law enforcement all notions should be defined because this system is an ancient tool with the established practice. Nevertheless, we should remember that any practice is not a theory. If any tool that has no definition in the theory is (or is considered to be) efficient in practice but at the same time has no clear conceptual structure — probably it is an absolutely different tool (tools). The essence is sliding away and is replaced by other essences. In the context of law, such essences are social institutional bodies. Taking into account all mentioned above in this research we analyze two institutional systems — natural law and canonical — for their acceptability for Russia. The analysis shows that “implanting” natural law is not typical for Russia both in historical and institutional contexts. We believe that this “implanting” can lead to destruction of the Russian national legal system’s basic functions; will strengthen relations within non-legal frameworks and as a result there is a possibility that a quasi-class society will appear. The Soviet practice of defining the basis of law is also insufficient as it creates and fixes law-similar but not legal essences or forms. As the main conclusion in this research, we give the definition of law typical for our country in historical-institutional context.