TRIUMPH OF LEGAL FORMALISM - THREAT TO THE SECURITY OF THE LEGAL ORDER

Abstract

The article deals with the relationship between the spirit of law and the letter of the law. The dualism of the spirit of law and the letter of the law lies in the discrepancy between their nature. The spirit of law expresses ideas, principles, symbols and values that can be regulative. Whereas the letter of the law is a set of documented norms that have a constitutive essence. The spirit of law is the fundamental basis of the legal consciousness of society. In law, as in art, which affects the consciousness and behavior of a person, the main thing is its spirit, meaning and image: only then the form of law acquires the fullness and integrity of its functional characteristics. The subject of the research is the categories «spirit of law» and «letter of law» in their regulatory sense. The purpose of this study is to substantiate the fundamental nature of the concept of «spirit of law» for the methodology of legal research, legal consciousness and the mechanism of legal regulation. The methodology for researching the spirit of law presupposes an adequate selection of means of knowledge. You cannot study the spirit of law with the tools of materialism or economic determinism. For the study of the spirit of law, the spiritual-moral, axiological, metaphysical, systemic methods and the method of synthesis are preferred. When the spirit of law is denied, the legal system of society ceases to meet the elementary requirements of the formation of a person's legal consciousness, his improvement and spiritual health. With the dominance of a dogmatic, positivist approach to law, it is generally impossible to understand how law functions and achieves a regulatory effect.