The Influence of Social Rights’ Foreign Teachings on the Russian Political and Legal Thought at the Beginning of the 20th Century

The majority of pre-revolutionary lawyers, despite the differences between them on the legal nature of social rights and the need for their recognition at the constitutional level, advocated an evolutionary path of social development. They considered the formation of capitalist relations as a natural and inevitable process that should be comprehended without falling into the extremes of utopian socialism. However, they noted the negative consequences of capitalism. In this regard, the study and analysis of the formation of social ideas in the legal thought of the beginning of twentieth century is of particular importance. In the article, the problem of the relationship between the principles of the rule of law and the social state in the concepts of Russian pre-revolutionary lawyers, the discussion in Russian legal science about the right to a worthy existence, and prerequisites and features of the formation of social ideas in the domestic legal thought in the context of influence of social rights’ foreign doctrines are considered. The author studies this issue using comparative historical, comparative legal, formal legal methods, as well as legal hermeneutics. The analysis proves that in the Russian political and legal thought of the early twentieth century, original concepts of a social legal state and the right to a worthy existence were formed. 

Keywords: social rights; concepts of social rights; political and legal thought; legal and social state; legal reality; community development; capitalism; legal science