The Spatiotemporal Dimension of the Legal Ontology of Russia’s Scientific and Technological Development

The paper examines the spatiotemporal aspects of legal ontology in the context of Russia’s scientific and technological development. The author proceeds from the premise that contemporary technological dynamics — characterized by the exponential acceleration of innovation cycles and systemic uncertainty regarding their consequences — are generating a fundamentally new technosocial and legal reality that requires profound theoretical reflection. The temporal asymmetry between the pace of technological change and the inertia of legal regulation exacerbates the problem of law’s «catch-up» character and necessitates the development of mechanisms for anticipatory adaptation. At the same time, the spatial asymmetry of Russia’s scientific and technological potential, reinforced by the persistent stereotype of perceiving territory as a «burden», results in the overconcentration of research centers and the scientific «desertification» of the periphery, thereby deepening socio-territorial stratification and weakening the country’s overall innovation capacity. The paper substantiates the need to develop a distinct projective-adaptive regime of legal regulation that integrates the imperative of maintaining continuity with the past through fundamental principles and values (serving as temporal invariants), the synchronous regulation of current technological practices, and the construction of the future through properly conceived anticipatory regulation. The paper elucidates the ontological meaning of anticipatory regulation not as the prediction of future legal relations, but as the establishment, in the present, of flexible regulatory frameworks capable of accommodating multiple scenarios of technological development. The study examines specific instruments for implementing such regulation, including scenario-based lawmaking, experimental legal regimes, adaptive normative structures, and review procedures. Particular attention is devoted to the role of legal principles, values, and legal fictions as temporal stabilizers that ensure the coherence and integrity of the legal order under conditions of heightened uncertainty.

1. Amelin RV, Chanov SE. Evolution of Law under the Influence of Digital Technology. Moscow: Norma Publ.; 2025. (In Russ.).

2. Gadzhiev GA. Ontology of law (critical study of the legal concept of reality). Moscow: Norma; Infra M Publ.; 2013. (In Russ.).

3. Halfina RO. Criterion of truth in legal science. Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo. 1974;9:20-28. (In Russ.).

4. Khabrieva TYa, Chernogor NN. Future of law. The legacy of academician V. S. Stepin and legal science. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences; IZiSP under the Government of the Russian Federation; Infra M Publ.; 2023. (In Russ.).

5. Khabrieva TYa. Law in the realities of the technological revolution. Moscow: Norma; Infra M Publ.; 2025. (In Russ.).

6. Khabrieva TYa. Legal essays on the technological revolution. Moscow: Norma; Infra M Publ.; 2026. (In Russ.).

7. Przhilenskiy VI. History and philosophy of science. Moscow: Norma; Infra M Publ.; 2025. (In Russ.).

8. Zagoskin NP. History of the law of the Russian people. Vol. 1. 512 p. Kazan: Imperial University Publ.; 1899. (In Russ.).