Vasechko Vyacheslav
The article provides a comparative characterics of the current Code of Judicial Ethics of the Russian Federation and the classical maxims of Roman lawyers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Formed in the Greco-Roman culture, the image of a “good judge” (judex bonus) is interpreted as a variant and hypostasis of a more general and fundamental ideal model of the “man of good” (vir bonus), previously developed in Peripatetics and stoicism. Substantive conclusions are drawn from the obvious premise that positive laws alone, in particular those regulating the legal status of a judge, are not sufficient for the normal and effective administration of justice. Positive legislation certainly needs a moral and ethical superstructure, norms of a different meaning and level, namely controlling the way of thinking, mindset and everyday behavior of the judge. The link between modern ethical norms of the professional judicial community and the moral and legal formulas of almost two thousand years old is shown. Specific examples are given to prove that modern norms semantically and often literally reproduce certain concepts, judgments and principles used by jurists since ancient times (for example, honesty, conscientiousness, independence, impartiality, competence, concern for the constant improvement of current legislation and other ethical qualities that a professional judge should necessarily possess). The importance of the norms regulating non-official relations and contacts of a judge from the point of view of the need for prevention and eradication of corruption deviations and moral and legal deformations arising in this regard is emphasized. Attention is drawn to the fact that both ancient and modern legal thought recognizes a certain conditionality, incompleteness and limitation of any available set of laws, as well as some ethical code. On this basis, guidelines for further improvement and updating of the Code of Judicial Ethics of the Russian Federation in terms of thoughtful anti-corruption efforts that actualize and rethink the potential of ancient Latin maxims are determined.
Keywords: the Code of Judicial Ethics of the Russian Federation; Latin legal maxims; Roman law; judge; improvement of the law enforcement system; positive law; natural justice; corruption
Marey Maria
The article analyzes the concepts of the state structure developed by the representatives of neo-Slavophilism. The author stresses that in neo-Slavophiles' projects, it is possible to find proposals for the reorganization of the public administration both at the lowest and highest levels. She discusses the subjects' civil and political freedoms in late Slavophilic projects and the correlation of these freedoms with autocratic power and the State's goals. Moreover, the author underlines a significant gap in Slavophilism studies especially in how the logic of communication was built when discussing social problems. Such a gap can be explained by the lack of studies of neo-Slavophiles’ socio-political views. This article attempts to construct a theoretical systematization of the late Slavophilism's views; at the same time, it is part of extensive work that needs to be done in this field.
Keywords: neo-Slavophilism; late Slavophilism; state; society; liberty; political life; republicanism
Galstyan Norik
The article analyzes one of the aspects of competition in politics’ legal protection related to the introduction of “antitrust” regulation in politics analogical to the economic sphere. The prospects for political market regulation in the Russian Federation are considered on the basis of an economic approach, also taking into account the constitutional nature of political competition and issues of legal regulation of political relations. As the author notes, it is permissible to use the economic approach for the purposes of understanding the mechanism of political competition, which is also confirmed by the works of Russian and foreign scholars. The possibility of introducing an “anti-monopoly regulation” in the political market by analogy with regulation of market relations in economics is considered as one of the directions for protecting political competition. The article analyzes the prospect of involving an independent “regulator” in the political field, and the possibility of endowing the existing authorities with the functions of protecting political competition. Nowadays, political competition is indirect object of administrative regulation, which covers only some aspects of electoral procedures constitutes an insignificant part of the total scope of competitive relations in politics. In this regard, political competition lacks comprehensive and systematic approach to ensuring and protecting. The author concludes that the direct use of the economic approach to the regulation of competition in politics is problematic, since it is associated with the methodological and legal issues of such regulation, which requires the identification of additional legal means of protecting political competition. The analysis of the constitutional provisions of several countries show that one of the means for maintaining a balance in the political arena could be the introduction of constitutional guarantees for certain political actors, which participate in the political competition.
Keywords: political competition; competition regulator; monopoly; political market; elections; parliamentarism; model of power
Fishman Leonid
The article attempts to identify the reasons for the acceptance of antivaccination and covid-dissidence by the outstanding proportions of people in Russia. The author argues that this phenomenon cannot be adequately interpreted as an outburst of obscurantism. It is more reasonable to consider the situation in the light of the global spread of a purely modern post-truth phenomenon. Current post-truth situation is described. It is characterized by the relativization of expert knowledge in the public mind, equalizing its authority with the authority of alternative sources of judgment on certain issues. As a result, there is a relative rise in the status of previously marginalized sources of alternative expert knowledge. Due to radical “democratization” of scientific (expert) knowledge, everyone chooses her/his position by relying on the opinion of the appealing experts, while avoiding the reproach of marginality. The uniqueness of Russia lies in the fact that even before the pandemic, in the 2000s, a general mindset was formed in a way that “everyone has their own truth”, which depends on group preferences and current needs. The plurality and de facto equivalent legitimacy of conflicting moral assessments, legal standards, ideological judgments, etc. became the norm of Russian public life. Russia has moved on the path of post-truth further than others, since it embarked on it earlier. The author shows that being in a post-truth situation is comfortable for various reasons for both authorities and society. Thus, by the time of the pandemic, the ability of a significant part of Russian society to develop a unified position on issues related to common interests and goals was too weakened in order to withstand the rapid flourishing of anti-vaccination and covid dissidence.
Keywords: obscurantism; post-truth; anti-vaccination; covid-dissidence; COVID-19
Varlamova Natalia
The purpose of this article is to reconstruct Petrażycki’s ideas on human rights by using the scattered and sometimes contradictory remarks on the issue to be found in his works. Leon Petrażycki did not pay special attention to human rights in his works, although this problematic has been a major focus of legal theory and legal philosophy, including the Russian one, throughout the modern history. Petrażycki viewed law as imperativeattributive emotions experienced by individuals. At the same time, the imperative component of such emotions arises as a reaction to the attributive one – i.e., an obligation is conditioned by another’s claim, and it is the satisfaction of the obligee’s interests that plays a decisive role, not the mere performance of the corresponding obligation as such. Petrażycki’s assumed that certain intuitive legal beliefs, being fundamental in nature, are absolute and do not derive from positive law – e.g., the beliefs that torture, rape, human enslavement, and certain methods of capital punishment are unacceptable. Such psychological beliefs can well be equated to human rights. However, Petrażycki denied that a right is an intention to implement one’s selfish interests. Petrażycki argued that law, as well as morality, pursues public welfare and prosperity, and the spiritual and cultural education of humanity. It is not only human beings that can obligees. Petrażycki held that animals, spiritual beings, or even paintings can play this role as long, as the satisfaction of their claims becomes the focus of emotions experienced of an imperative side. He obviously did not share a liberal understanding of human rights as personal freedoms. Even more, Petrażycki believed that his social ideal of universal active love is the ultimate goal of law’s educational effects, and this ideal requires the overcoming and elimination of exactly those aspects of the human psyche that manifest themselves in the rights understood as personal freedoms. By the same token, Petrażycki anticipated many trends that characterise the contemporary understanding of human rights.
Keywords: Leon Petrażycki; human rights; psychological theory of law; imperativeattributive emotions experiences; morality; social ideal of universal active love
Ryzhkov Konstantin
One of the most important tasks facing the judicial system is to achieve uniformity in judicial practice. Its absence makes law enforcement activity unpredictable, which not only complicates the activities of the subjects of procedural legal relations, but can also undermine public confidence in the judicial system. At the same time, due to the diversity, complexity and dynamism of social relations, it is not possible to achieve the specified qualitative state of judicial practice in all cases, and therefore the issue of identifying and comprehensive analysis of factors influencing the achievement of such uniformity is relevant. The article analyzes the problems associated with the existence and classification of factors affecting the uniform interpretation and application of the rule of law in civil and arbitration proceedings. Problems related to the specificity and degree of influence of these factors on the uniformity of judicial practice are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the study of the prerequisites for the observance and violation of such uniformity in the legislation. The aim of the study is to establish and classify factors affecting the uniform interpretation and application of the rule of law in civil and arbitration proceedings. To achieve this goal, the author has set the task of analyzing each of these factors in terms of the degree and specificity of its impact on the results of law enforcement. Also, the author has set the task of formulating conceptual proposals for improving the current legislation. Based on the results of the study, the author identified five categories of factors influencing the uniform interpretation and application of the rule of law in civil and arbitration proceedings, and also identified specific factors within each of the categories. It is proposed to concretize the list of applicable forms (sources) of law in the current legislation, including in an exhaustive way to resolve the issue of the possibility of using judicial precedent and legal doctrine as such. The author also proposed to regulate in detail and uniformly the essence and place of generalizations of the practice of courts of inspection instances, providing for the possibility of referring to them when passing judicial decisions on specific cases.
Keywords: uniformity of judicial practice; interpretation of law; application of law; civil procedure; arbitration procedure