Traditional Legal Consciousness in Sustainable Development: The Case of China

Abstract

The Modern world is at the crossroad of enormous changes in all spheres of life. The era of Western dominance, has been lasting for several centuries, seemed to be finished along with the dissemination of European Enlightenment. The project of Modernity implied secularization of public life reflects the theory of natural human rights and principles of the law state. However, the slogan of the rule of law turned not only legalization, but the etatization of social life, the destruction of traditional forms of social organization and communication. Under these conditions, the crisis of Western society spreads to the East and humankind tries to find other variants of normative-value system construction. The purpose of the article was the determination of Fa (formal law) in value-normative system of traditional Chinese philosophy. We revealed a holistic system of main categories of ancient Chinese philosophy looking at the ideas of Taoism, Confucianism, and legalism. We substantiated the protective purpose of Fa in the public life. We assumed that the emphasis in the regulatory system of Chinese society determined the values and patterns of behavior that focus on the sublime beginning of humanity and virtue, explained the preservation of Chinese civilization and its prospective development.