Understanding of the obligation in natural law concepts of John Locke and Jan-Jak Russo

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the problems of obligations in the light of the natural legal concepts of John Locke and Jan-Jak Russo. Thus, within his theory of the social contract, John Locke notes about the natural state of people, from which the law of nature follows, is obligatory for everyone. Such the obligation comes from the human nature or from the harmony between natural law and the rational human nature. The reason for the formation of a civil society is to prevent a state of war, when force, not supported by law, is used contrary to natural law. Therefore, John Locke assigns obligations to the supreme authority, to which people entrusted a part of their freedom in order to fulfill the goals of the state - to ensure peace,security and welfare of the people.
 Thus, John Locke mainly considers the obligation through the prism of laws - first of all natural (not to cause harm to others), and later also civil, which is established by the supreme authority. The individual in the state is entrusted with the obligation to carry out the prescriptions determined by the government, while the government is supposed to ensure peace, protect property, and justly resolve (through judicial institutions) disputes between citizens. In this way, the freedom of individuals is guaranteed by the state, because real freedom, according to the thinker, is possible only in a legal state.
 On the example of the concept of Jan-Jak Russo’s social contract а certain feature can be traced. It is about a significant strengthening of the collective factor over the individual one, when a union of individuals who have mutual rights and obligations in relation to each other is formed in the manner of a corresponding contract. Obligation, therefore, is not only what binds a person, subjecting him to the supreme authority, but, above all, what serves as a factor of cooperation of people in a perfect union. Based on the concept of popular sovereignty, the principles of direct democracy, which the French thinker advocated, individuals should not just fulfill certain prescriptions, but also be called to be active participants in the state-legal reality, in particular, to participate in the creation of laws. Such laws, as the personification of the expressions of the general will, can ensure justice, equality and freedom of individuals.