RUDN Journal of Law (Dec 2018)

The Spatial and Temporal Grounds of Legal Civilization Development: Concentration or Absorption

  • Konstantin E Sigalov

DOI
https://doi.org/10.22363/2313-2337-2018-22-1-42-65
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 1
pp. 42 – 65

Abstract

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The law, like everything in nature and society, is subordinated to universal forms of existence of the material world. At the same time, the general characteristics of objective reality, the most important forms of existence such as space and time determine the essence and specific features of the law formation and development in different regions. First, the Article reveals the features of the legal space. The space is chorus of significant interrelations, the way of organization, the «scale» of the influence of legal remedies on social life, etc. The space contributes to the understand of the law environment as integrity, also due to the space a common language and general rules are possible. For human history the geographical space is permanent and almost unchanged. However, the social practice is becoming less and less dependent only on these conditions. On the basis of his practice, a person seeks to change the social life and the substance of culture. The variety of legal systems is due to various reasons. The Natural and geographical factors, features of civilizational technologies determine the different conditions and needs of life of different countries and communities. Second, the article defines the specificity of the legal time. The time and law are fundamental categories of humanitarian knowledge. At first sight, these categories are not quite proportionate: the time is a category related to all inanimate and living matter, to social phenomena, and also to cognition; the law reflects solely the form of existence of social reality. Nevertheless, in the social sphere and in the field of normativity, the time and law are similar to consider their role in the people's lives. The effect of the law is connected with the effect of the time, because the law specifies the basis for possible behavior. The spatial-temporal characteristics cut across the legal culture and legal life.

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