The doctrine of the person in the psychological concept of law of Leon Petrażycki and in the modern anthropology of la

Abstract

The article analyzes the anthropological and legal potential of L. I. Petrażycki’s psychological theory of law. The question of the “human dimension of law” was raised by the psychological theory for the first time. L. I. Petrażycki criticized theories of the subject of law modern at that time, however, he did not propose any alternative theory of the subject of law as a practice-oriented legal language and legal tool. L. I. Petrażycki’s main task was to overcome the formal juridism, dogmatic legal ideas and to come closer to the understanding of how the law is actually reflected in the legal consciousness of the subject and what actually determines the legal behavior of a person. The comparison of L. I. Petrażycki’s approach and modern anthropology of law shows that although L. I. Petrażycki placed the law in the field of subjectivity, in the field of human psychics, he did this without reference to the concept of a personality and its manifestations in the law. L. I. Petrażycki believed that the legal personality, the subject of law is entirely expressed in the emotional sphere, the sphere of experience, and considered it sufficient to clarify how the law actually works. However, abandoning the personality as an anthropological concept, the scientist left aside such traditional anthropological categories as will, freedom, responsibility, as well as refused to use the concept of a value in his legal theory, thus creating the risk of axiological leveling of the law. Therefore, the article concludes that L. I. Petrażycki’s theory was not the anthropology of law as it is considered today within the general theoretical jurisprudence. The article also analyzes two modern legal concepts developing L. I. Petrażycki’s ideas, namely the communicative the

Keywords:

law, psychological theory of law, anthropology of law, subject of law, personality, emotion, value, normativity