The correlation of law and lex in Russia as a historical and legal problem

Abstract

The article analysis a question about the ratio of law and lex in Russia in historical and legal researches in 19-20th centuries. The following issues are highlighted in the article: consideration of history of state and law or as a history of law; evolution of ratio of law and lex in Russia; chronological definition of the emergence of concepts “law” and “lex”; correctness of the use definition “law” and “lex” in the context of the centuries-old dualism of secular and ecclesiastical regulation of social relations. By analyzing university charters of The Russian Empire, it was revealed that the term “history of law” was used in Russian materials, but abroad the term “history of legislation” was used. The article shows the importance of tradition in studying historical and legal issues in soviet time, in spite of ideological attitudes. The possibilities of historical and legal science in the complex assessment of the concept of law are shown from the point of view of elements of formal legal sources of law, the use of a situational approach, which allows to consider options for equating law and lex and opposing them, considering law and lex as a substantive substance and legal form, identifying features of the Russian legal system in the context of the combinations “law-lawlessness”, “law-truth”. The article shows that in the 1990s in Russia, when the plan of legal reforms was in development the two approaches revealed : either legal reform was limited only to legislative reform, or was viewed as a process of changing legal awareness in the context of legal policy, legal ideology, “rooting” of new legal values, etc. The author's position is expressed that the last opinion is more preferable for Russian society.