Synthetic Concept of Law

Abstract

The article is devoted to the justification of the synthetic concept of legal understanding on the example of the conservative legal ideology of Russia. The study proves the peculiarity of the Russian traditionalist concept of law based on the works of domestic conservatives, analyzes approaches to legal understanding through the prism of traditional settings, assuming the unity of religion, morality, and law in the form of the concept of „truth”. The hypothesis that the legal understanding in Russian conservatism is a unique synthetic theory of law differs from combining natural law, positivist, and sociological concepts of legal understanding, which are alien to one another. Thus, the main postulates of the synthetic concept of law are put forward. First, the basic idea of the synthetic concept of law is to balance the formal law and the inner moral, religious, moral, and ethical attitudes of man. In other words, the action of law and other social regulators must be in inseparable unity. Secondly, the synthetic concept of law emphasizes the importance of considering people’s identity and traditional legal attitudes. The method of absorption of cultures prefers the synthesis of the best achievements of political and legal thought of different cultures. Third, the synthetic concept of law is of an applied nature. Our analysis revealed a correlation between the secularization of society and the decreasing role of traditional regulators, between the predominance of law and the growth of crime, and between the expansion of state coercion and the decline in the social order. Consequently, to increase the role of other social regulators, to increase the degree of social order and to reduce crime, law must incorporate spiritual principles to be an element of living, the organic connection of religion, morality (tradition), and formal law in a single regulator „Truth”.