Legal and economic thought in retrospect: a new facet of intellectual history

Abstract

This article examines such a little-studied problem as the interaction of legal and economic thought in retrospect. New approaches to the study of this interaction are outlined. The research is based on historical, systemic and structural and comparative legal scientific methods. The author substantiatedly asserts about the chronological primacy of legal research, in connection with which the appeal to the study of economics was of a subordinate nature. It is noted that the research of that period was mainly of a normative nature, since their authors wanted to define a model of behavior in the field of economics, which would correspond to the ideals of natural law. Special attention is paid to the modern problems of interaction between legal and economic thought. In this regard, «economic imperialism» is subjected to well-reasoned criticism, according to which the laws of the economy apply to all spheres of social life. It is concluded that the study of the interaction of legal and economic thought in retrospect makes it possible not only to better understand the processes taking place in the past, but also to consider the directions of solutions to modern problems facing the legal and economic sciences.