The concept of legal systems and types. The legal system of society: the concept and structure

Scientists have long proven the fact that man is primarily a social being. This means - all people can exist only in an environment where they are present. In this case, communication and psychological contact play an important role. This feature is due to one key factor that people have because of their physiological differences. This factor is consciousness. Thanks to him, each of us can think and make decisions, solve complex problems, etc. But constant social dialogue in the human environment calls for the regulation of emerging social relations.

For many centuries people have tried to find the most effective way to regulate them. In the process of these searches, many solutions have been found, ranging from violence and ending with popular assemblies. The problem was that all such solutions were not sufficiently effective. However, the answer was still found. To date, there is no better regulator of public relations than law. The development of this social phenomenon is so great that law has become the basis of entire structures, one of which is the legal system. In the theory of state and law there are many opinions and theoretical developments on this topic. In this article, we will try to analyze, and also provide the notion of legal systems, to characterize their structures.

What is the legal system?

It should be noted that the concept of legal systems varies depending on the scientific approach and the principles of a particular law school. In addition to this, the legal peculiarities of a particular state are of great importance. But in this article we will be based on the information of the national school of the theory of state and law. To date, the general concept of the legal system is that it is a structure inherent in each specific state and consisting of three elements: the system of law, the rights of implementation, legal culture. The concept presented is the most "classical", if one can say so. In other states, the understanding of this structure can be modified due to the legal characteristics of the country itself. In this article, for an example, we characterize the structure and concept of the Russian legal system.

Confusion of terms

Very often the concepts of "legal system" and "legal system" are confused. In this case, you need to be extremely careful. Despite the fact that the terms are identical, from the logical point of view their meaning in the legal field of knowledge is absolutely the opposite. To differentiate them, one must understand: the system of law is only one of the elements of the legal system. Confusion also arises when the concept of the legal system and legal family is analyzed. The peculiarities of these structures will be discussed later in the article. But it should be noted that legal families are structures, the elements of which are the national legal systems of these or those states. Thus, in order to overcome the misunderstanding of one term or another, it is necessary to know what meaning it has in science.

The concept of the legal system of society - three approaches of theoretical comprehension

The legal system, the notion, the characteristic of which will be presented in this article, is completely differently comprehended by various scientists in the national school of the theory of state and law. There are only three basic approaches, namely:

1. Adherents of the first approach argue that the legal system of society, the concept and structure of which is presented in this article, is the totality of all acts of state rule-making without exception. In other words, only the form of expression and fixing of norms is considered. Here the importance of hierarchy of normative acts and their legal force plays.

2. The second approach characterizes the legal system not only through the prism of positive law, but also through some accompanying elements of legal reality. As a rule, legal ideology and judicial practice are among the accompanying elements. On the expanses of the Russian Federation, this approach did not find much support.

3. The third can be called the most standard. According to him, the entire legal field of the state is included in the concept of the legal system. The main legal systems are, in fact, key features of the state. Thus, any legal elements directly relate to the legal system.

From which follows the conclusion. The presence of so many theories suggests that scientists are still trying to develop the most standard concept of legal systems.

Elements

The concept and types of legal systems are completely dependent on their structural elements. There are many scientific approaches to understanding the structure of this or that legal structure. However, as a rule, three main elements are distinguished, which are present absolutely in all systems. These include: the system of law, legal culture and the implementation of law. Each of the elements presented has its own effect on social relations, in other words, they regulate all social processes in their own way. In addition, it should be noted that all elements, in turn, are also structured.

Concept of the system of law

Earlier, we pointed out that the legal system of society, the concept and structure of which is presented in this article, strongly depends and even in some cases is confused with the notion of "system of law". It should be remembered that the latter is one of the structural elements of the national legal system. In addition, this element displays the internal structure of the law in general. In other words, the legal system is a legal hierarchy of existing norms. But you should not confuse this hierarchy with the system of normative acts. Because the NAP is a positive law, and for the system of law all norms and customs sanctioned by the state power are important. Thus, the legal system, the concept and structure of which are presented in the article, is characterized by the internal structure of the elements of law-realization, namely, the system of law.

Structure of the system of law

It should be noted that the legal system is a structure of mutually complementary elements. That is, its analysis is "from above," from the most significant or large structures, to the smallest elements. The analysis of the system is easy to carry out because in almost any state it is the same. Thus, the following elements stand out: the branch of law, the institution and the rule of law.

1. If we take into account the system of law of the Russian Federation, then the branches of law are a set of legal norms and institutions that are united by a common subject of regulation. In other words, the branches regulate homogeneous social relations. An example of the branch of law are civil, criminal, housing, family law, and so on.

2. The institutions of law are the constituent elements of the branches. But they, in turn, consist of similar legal norms. The need for institutes arises in those cases when a social phenomenon is regulated by a large number of norms. An excellent example of the institution can be called a marriage contract in family law.

3. The rule of law is the "smallest" element of the system of law. However, this fact does not detract from its significance. In the norms of law, the very subject of legal regulation is prescribed.

Legal culture of society

The concept of legal systems, or rather, the structure of this category, includes such an element as the legal culture of society. It should be noted that this is one of the main structural components of the national law of any country, and in particular of the Russian Federation. Legal culture first of all indicates the development of the population and its relation to law in general. This is manifested in the degree of law and order. After all, legal culture manifests itself in specific behavioral traits. In people's belief in the effectiveness of legal norms. Thus, the legal culture of society is a certain kind of system of values, legal ideas, skills, traditions and behavioral stereotypes that are acceptable in certain social groups. As a rule, these factors are used in these groups for the internal regulation of relations between its members.

Manifestation of the legal culture of society

In order for social relations to obey the tendencies of certain cultural norms, specific types of their direct manifestation were developed. After all, legal culture, in fact, does not mean anything, if it does not have a real effect. There are four main types of its manifestation, namely:

- legal institutions, norms;

- legal ideas;

- Legal institutions;

- legal misconduct.

It should be noted that public legal culture also depends on the development of the legal infrastructure of the state, effective legal activity and legislation, which must first of all comply with constitutional norms.

Realization of the right

The legal system of society, the concept and structure of which are presented in the article, contains in its composition such an important element as the implementation of the law. In fact, this part of the system is responsible for the actual implementation of the constitution, laws and other regulations in the Russian Federation. In the theoretical sense, the realization of law is the actual imposition of the norms of legal acts of the state on its citizens, for the implementation of the provisions of these acts in real life. In order to improve the effectiveness of the legal norms of this or that branch, special forms of legalization have been developed in the theory of law.

Forms of implementation of national law

In the classical version, scientists distinguish three basic forms of the realization of law, namely:

1. Use, that is, the realization by the subjects of the law of their opportunities. In other words, the use of personal powers.

2. Execution is the activity for the implementation of binding norms, when the subject of law acts according to the strict requirements of the law.

3. Compliance is a passive category. It manifests itself in preserving the legal regime in force in the state and refraining from committing offenses.

Thus, through the norms presented, Russian citizens can support the legal system of the state by their active or passive actions.

Legal families

It should be noted that the legal system, the concept and structure of which is presented in the article, is unique. Therefore, in the world there are absolutely identical structures of this type. Nevertheless, if you compare these categories, you can see some unchanging features. Thus, scientists have found that in several legal systems, one can find general patterns. In order to somehow characterize a number of similar systems, such categories as legal families were invented. Thus, the legal family is the key concept of comparative jurisprudence, which is a collection of similar national legal systems in a certain territory. As a rule, a single family includes systems that combine common sources, the history of formation, structure, functions, etc. To date, the following types of legal families are distinguished, namely:

- Anglo-Saxon;

- Romano-Germanic;

- religious legal family;

- family of traditional law.

Conclusion

So, in the article we have uncovered the notion of a system of legal regulation in the Russian Federation. To date, this problem is one of the key in the theory of state and law. Because the developments in this direction will help improve the effectiveness of law as the main regulator of legal relations in our state.