Conceptual Foundations of Positive Responsibility: Legal Aspect

The paper examines the main theoretical approaches to understanding the phenomenon of the rule of law and determining its essential characteristics, identifies the advantages and disadvantages of the most common points of view of scientists within the framework of scientific discourse devoted to the idea of building a rule of law and the possibility of its real implementation. The author concludes that in a state governed by the rule of law, the binding of power by legislative prescriptions cannot and should not be an end in itself, such a restriction is necessary to fully ensure the rights and freedoms of a citizen, when the state itself really recognizes the highest value of human rights, recognizes their priority. At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that even the availability of the widest possible range of opportunities for a person to exercise his rights and freedoms does not guarantee the emergence of a desire, an aspiration to actually implement them, is not a guarantee of proactive, responsible legal behavior of citizens.
The author proposes to introduce another essential characteristic of the rule of law: its citizens are self-determined, aware of themselves as bearers of positive legal responsibility. The main aspects of the scientific discussion about its essential characteristics and place both within the framework of legal responsibility and in the legal plane as a whole are investigated. The point of view is substantiated, according to which its positive component occupies a rightful place in the structure of legal responsibility: this is the driving force for bona fide participants in legal relations, while it is tied to the legal plane through legal awareness, it relies on it here. It is proposed to consider positive legal responsibility as a form of realization of a developed, mature legal consciousness of a person and its practical significance is shown by the example of a trial with the participation of jurors.

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