The concept of state organ as a theoretical and dogmatic problem
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu25.2024.404Abstract
The organic metaphor has a very ancient history in the social sciences, particularly in the science of the state. Thus, for the ancient and Christian understanding of law, it served as a tool for solving the problem of the correlation between the part and the whole - the unity of the state and the plurality of people who make it up. Nevertheless, the very concept of a state organ can be considered relatively new - only in the XIX century, under the influence of the organic movement of the social sciences, it firmly entered both the legal and political terminology, as well as in the ordinary use of words. Initially, the problem of the state organ was considered by jurists as part of the problem of the unity of state power and its will. At the same time, some theories recognized the state as a fiction, like any other legal person, and considered state organs as its representatives; others recognized only the state itself as a fully independent legal person, emphasizing the difference between organs and representatives, and others considered state organs as independent persons representing not the state, but the nation. Later, under the influence of H. Kelsen’s pure theory of law, it came to be seen as a problem of imputation - attributing the actions of individuals to the state. The Danish legal scholar Alf Ross formulated a fairly universal list of criteria for theoretical identification of a state organ, however, in the end, the dogmatics of each legal system contains its own concept of a state organ and its features. The analysis of the Russian legal system, primarily the norms of the Constitution, allows us to formulate the features of the dogmatic notion of state organs relevant for the Russian law as individuals (officials) or groups of individuals (organizations), directly or indirectly formed by the population of the Russian Federation or the population of the subject of the Russian Federation, exercising power on the basis of the Constitution of Russia on behalf of the people of the Russian Federation, whose actions are imputed to the Russian Federation or the subject of the Russian Federation, if such actions are performed within the established competence.
Keywords:
state organ, organic theory of state, H. Kelsen, legal school of state theory
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