Psychological legal realism of P. V. Delarov

Abstract

The subject of this research is the works of the Russian legal scholar of the second half of the XIX century P. V. Delarov, better known to his contemporaries as a collector of antiques. Since the late 1870s he wrote several essays covering the fundamental and applied topics and problems of legal science and practice. His works are poorly studied within the framework of legal disciplines of historical and philosophical-legal profiles, however represent particular interest for the history of establishment of legal thought in Russia. This particular pertains to the author’s reference to the tasks on reforming legal science into psychology of law; renewing the theoretical-methodological principles and characteristics, which allowed the Russian legal scholar to resolve the fundamental contradictions in the area of cognition and interpretation of law, associated with idealistic or realistic arguments. The scientific novelty of this research lies in the following aspects: description and analysis of the legal views of P. V. Delarov, which were not been previously studied in the history of legal thought; substantiation of the conclusions that he formulated the first theoretically mature and developed psychological concept of law within the Russian legal literature; the concept of P. V. Delarov appeared much earlier than the psychological concept of L. I. Petrażycki;. Delarov’s concept in its essence represented a variety of realistic theories that rely on the tendency of “scientification” of jurisprudence within the framework of natural-scientific worldview of the XIX century. This article also presents other generalizations and explanations of P. V. Delarov's legal views, which allow introducing significant clarifications into understanding the processes of the emergence of psychological approaches towards law in the Russian and Foreign legal literature.