LEGAL INTERPRETATION IN RUSSIAN LAW: THE UNITY OF THE METHODOLOGICAL AND ACTIVITY APPROACHES

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Abstract

The problem of legal interpretation in Russian jurisprudence is characterized by an extremely wide range of opinions: from formally dogmatic to postmodern. Every scientist tries to see in the interpretation something «his own». A number of scientists believe that it is possible to discuss the terminology of the question, in particular, the distinction between «interpretation» and «explain». Others consider that the purpose of studying the interpretation is to find the best ways to understand the laws published in the state. For the third, the interpretation is interesting in that it lies at the basis of the discretion of officials in the course of practical work on resolving legal disputes, and this raises questions of the limits of interpretation. For the fourth, the interpretation has the status of an ideological toolkit for solving social problems, for example, in constitutional judicial proceedings. The current doctrinal state of the interpretation problem lags behind the needs of legislation and legal regulation practice. Therefore, the changes in the passport of a scientific specialty 12.00.01 - the theory and history of law and the state; the history of the doctrine of law and the state, which singled out the legal interpretation as an independent method of the study of law, requires due scientific attention. The purpose of the article is to give the author's a generalized idea of the place and meaning of legal interpretation in modern Russian law on the material of available scientific literature. Research methods: formal legal, analysis and synthesis, modeling, extrapolation. The results of the study. The age-old disputes over legal interpretation among scholars and practitioners lawyers, philosophers, politicians are explained by the polysemy of the term «interpretation», which allows considering it, according to the author’s article, in two fundamental meanings: narrow and broad. In a narrow linguistic sense, interpretation is a combination of linguistic methods for analyzing legal texts. In a broadly discursive sense, interpretation is perception, translation (decoding) and extracting the meaning of any legal phenomena. Separately highlighted are the methodological and activity aspects of this problem, focusing respectively on modern approaches to interpreting the phenomena of the entire legal life of society, as an integral part of legal discourse, and traditional approaches to interpretation as special activities aimed at understanding the meaning of textually fixed legal norms using special technical-legal means. It is concluded that the generalized consideration of legal interpretation in modern Russian law is necessary in the unity of the methodological and activity aspects.

About the authors

Yulia A. Gavrilova

Volgograd State University

Author for correspondence.
Email: gavrilova_ua@volsu.ru

Candidate of Legal Science, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Theory and History of Law and the State, Law Institute

100, Universitetsky ave., Volgograd, Russia, 400062

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Copyright (c) 2019 Gavrilova Y.A.

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