The Deficiency of the Legal Discourse in the Russian Philosophy of Law

• In Event: Russian and Soviet Legal Philosophies

Abstract

In his entry on Russian philosophy of law included in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Andrzej Walicki remarks that “Russian thought is rarely associated with the philosophy of law” and that Russian intellectuals are “known rather for their uncompromising critique of legalism.” This paper aims to understand to what extent this claim is correct by examining the question of the peculiarity of legal philosophical thought in Russia. It argues that despite several exceptions, the genuine consideration of law as a constitutive element of Rechtsphilosophie is absent from pre-revolutionary Russian intellectual discourse. Instead, the phenomenon of law is treated as an element of moral-practical judgment, being subdued and transformed into a peripheral and applied ethical theme.

Author

• Marina Bykova, North Carolina State U