Territory as a Public Law Category: Concept and Logical Relationship with the State

Abstract

The article is devoted to several conceptual issues of legal understanding of the state territory. The author analyzes the construction of the notion of state territory and substantiates that its multiple definitions are theoretically acceptable. However, modern legal practice implies the inevitability of recognizing a specific approach to understanding state territory as a sphere where state sovereignty manifests itself. The author considers the discrepancies in the legally fixed descriptions of the RF territory composition. It is stated that the discussion about this composition has no scientific solution and can only be arbitrarily terminated, namely by means of enumerating the components of the territory in the legislation or recognizing the correctness of a certain approach by the academic community. The article addresses some issues of using the relevant terminology in legal doctrine and legal regulation. The author shows that legal and linguistic traditions of the describing of territorial issues in various countries do not agree, and that under certain conditions jurisprudence can technically manage without the term “territory” and similar words. Nevertheless, although the term “territory” is flawed, it has practically no alternative in modern Russian-language jurisprudence. The article reveals that in order to assess if a state requires territory, one should consider the interpretation of the notions of territory and state, as well the used scientific methodology. Besides, it demonstrates that it is methodologically precarious to interpret territory as a feature, element, condition or prerequisite of the state. The author shows that the spatial nature of the state bodies jurisdiction and of the national law operation, as well as the spatial structuring of such jurisdiction and of the legal order stay relevant for the modern period of the statehood development. However, the intensive digitalization implementation taking place in the sphere of public functions and public services can lead to a noticeable reduction of the practical need for territorial structuring of the state.