Philosophy of Law and History of Public Law Dogmatics in the Civil Law Tradition

Abstract

In the article the author turns to the understanding of the nature and meaning of legal dogma, reveals the peculiarities of its structure and methodological foundations. The process of the formation of legal dogma is traced in a general theoretical way. On the basis of historical reconstruction of the development of the Western legal tradition, an explanation is given for the perception of the division of law into private and public as the “basic division of law” by the professional legal consciousness of lawyers. The reasons for the fundamental status of this division are seen in the peculiarities of the genesis of private and public law in continental Europe. The author has attempted to identify the philosophically and legally significant differences between private and public law within the cultural and historical framework of the Western legal tradition. An attempt is also made to contrast the “classical” private law dogma with the legal dogmatics of the public law cycle. Particular attention is paid to the process of influence of philosophical world views on the historical change of public law dogma in the Western legal tradition. The paper shows how the key philosophical and legal ideas of rationalism, idealism and Marxism have influenced the structure and institutions of public law. The paper concludes with the author's position on the socio-cultural factors that hinder the development of a coherent and workable systematics of public law dogma.