The Problem of Objectivity of Law in the Doctrine of Professor S.S. Alekseyev

This article is devoted to the research of the problem of objectivity of law in scientific work of the distinguished Russian scientist and legal scholar, professor Sergey Sergeyevich Alekseev. This topic has attracted his attention since the very beginning of his scientific work. He gave an exceptional priority to the objectivity of law. First of all, he specially defended the autonomy of law in the system of social order. In this context, he considered the law not only as a service for the economy, politics and state power but as a significant regulator of social relations. Analyzing the ideas and conclusions of the scientist which he formulated in different periods of research, the paper shows the evolution of his scientific views. It is noted that professor Alekseev was one of the few scientists and legal scholars who wrote openly about law as an objective social reality in Soviet literature of the 1950s - 1980s. He did not overemphasize the objectivity of law as he understood it as autonomy of law in relation to other social phenomena. In this regard, his research paid more attention in legal science to re-thinking dogmatic ideas about law, releasing law from scholasticism and doctrinarism. In legislation (positive law), the scientist suggests getting rid of all the controversial requirements of law, in particular existing in human rights and freedoms. Hence, he considers that there is a mismatch of law and right; therefore there is a difference between them, in particular the division of rules into legal and non-legal. Theoretical elaborations of the scientist as for objectivity of law were aimed at the radical change of attitude to law in society, starting with the head of state, public servants and every citizen. The paper also studies opposite positions of the scientists who deny not only the real fact of the objective in law but even the idea of it. In their opinion, such objectivism makes it impossible for social actors to participate in rulemaking; it has impact on law and considers it solely as a subjective form, the so-called product of lawmaking activity of state power.