The Concept and Content of National Interests in Science and Practice

Abstract

The article reflects general scientific approaches to the concept of national interests, emphasizes the dichotomy of the concept of “national interests” both in European and domestic studies, and in Asian ones. An analysis of the draft laws developed to protect and implement the national interests of the Russian Federation is given, which shows the priority areas of state policy, and also demonstrates that the authors of the bill do not fully take into account the versatility of the concept of “national interests”, which leads to the substitution of national interests by personal or corporate ones. The article also reveals the importance of law enforcement practice for the legislative process and for the development of the doctrine of “national interests”. The object of the study is the social relations that arise in the sphere of formation and implementation of national interests. The subject of the study is the general patterns of legislative and judicial practice that determine the content of national interests, as well as scientific campaigns and official documents (strategies, concepts, programs, etc.). Since the article is part of a scientific work on a grant, it sets fundamental goals for further theoretical research: to describe the concept of “national interests”, its concept and content using the works of domestic and foreign scientists in the field of law and political science, and also to reflect the possibilities of judicial practice, which thanks to the predictive function, it is able to determine possible national priorities that need legal regulation. To achieve the goals set, a set of tasks was solved: the nature and genesis of the concept of “national interests” were studied; analyzed scientific approaches to the concept of “national interests”; revealed the essential problems in the legislative process that affect the content of national interests. The work is an interdisciplinary study that combines methods traditional for legal and political sciences: formal-logical, systemic, modeling method, statistical, analytical.