Legal science in Russia: peculiarities of the current state and prospects for development

Abstract

Introduction. The article describes the discussion at the 20th international scientifictheoretical conference “State and Law: Evolution, Current State, Development Prospects (to the 25th Anniversary of the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia)” (2023) held at St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. 433 researchers took part in the discussion of actual issues of modern legal science. These are scientists and practitioners of Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. The participants presented the views on the peculiarities of the modern stage of development of national legal science - postclassical (post-neoclassical) legal science; the importance of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity of legal research in the development of theoretical jurisprudence; updating the methodological basis of modern legal science; the dependence of the state of jurisprudence on the transformations of social reality; topical problems of legal understanding and legal regulation. Methods. The main methodological principles of the research were the principles of comprehensive study of legal processes and phenomena, integrity of theory and practice, historicism. The main methodological approaches of the research were defined as the system approach and the value approach. The last one contributed to the identification of the ideas important for the modern stage of development of legal science. The method of integrity made it possible to identify the features of the current state of legal science as a system of interrelated elements of legal knowledge and the reasons determining their change in the course of historiographical analysis. Results.The views of modern scientists on actual issues of modern jurisprudence are characterised: the specifics of the state of post-classical (postnon-classical) legal science (I. L. Chestnov); the features of the methodology of modern theoretical jurisprudence (N. V. Varlamova, M. L. Davydova, V. V. Denisenko, S. A. Kalinin, N. V. Mamchenko); the significance in the development of theoretical jurisprudence of the problem of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity (S. V. Kodan, I. A. Andreeva, E. N. Tonkov); the dependence of the state of modern theoretical jurisprudence on the instability of social reality (A. V. Skorobogatov, V. G. Zarubin, V. A. Semenov); the place of modern legal science in the disciplinary structure of social and humanitarian sciences (L. V. Denisova); structure of modern theoretical jurisprudence (V. Yu.Belsky, A. L. Zolkin, M. V. Baranova); features of legal understanding and law enforcement (R. I. Baigutlin, L. V. Karnaushenko, E. S. Zaitseva, D. A. Matantsev); organisational and legal determinants of the development of modern legal science (I. A. Goncharov, A. G. Repiev).