Ortyns'ka N.M.

Ph.D., assistant of Department of
Administrative and Information Law National University "Lviv Polytechnic”

Comparison of categories personality and legal status

Human exists in society and is governed by certain rules of conduct. A person is endowed in law with such category as legal status. All outgoing concepts such as rights, freedoms, responsibilities, guarantees, and other are derived from the general status of the personality in the law. Therefore there is a methodological need in legal analysis for direct concept of "personality".

This concept is explored within all humanities; initially the study was made in the philosophical sense. For example, for German classical philosophy prominent is the concept of man as the subject of spiritual activity that creates the world of culture as a carrier of significant general knowledge, universal public beginning - mind [1, p.769].

Personality - is a wide-ranging concept and it’s not right to reduce it solely to the spiritual world. The interpretation of personality must carry an integral character that combines social and biological features. All these features can be grouped into four categories: 1) biological traits of personality, gender, health status, visual appearance, etc; 2) features of the individual psyche and temperament; 3) features that are acquired by personality: knowledge, level of culture, habits, behavior; 4) features that characterize the personality in social relations. However, besides these individual features certain external determinants have a significant impact on personality. Therefore, we can conclude that the personality as a legal category requires pluralistic research methods, because it’s a complex scientific category.

In describing the personality representatives of different scientific schools and directions use the following theoretical approaches:

· biological – the personality is studied primarily in terms of the genetic background of its formation and evolution, their influence on the behavioral and social aspects of the individual development, thus some features, characteristics of personality are transmitted to humans by inheritance, i.e. some elements that make up the content of personality have congenital, hereditary nature;

· experimental - study of personality comes from the study of perceptual, cognitive processes, higher nervous activity, their role in the behavior in different situations;

· social - it's studied social environment, social roles, social, historical and cultural conditions, influence on the formation of the human personality, which is reviewed and described as a part of society and product of social development;

· humanistic - the basis of this approach is the attempt to see in every human the personality, and in the personality - her spirituality. The major signs are studied from this perspective, which reflects its main characteristics, internal structure, which is compared with behavioral, social characteristics of the individual [2, p.34-36, 39].

Thus, we can note that modern science does not have universal and generally accepted definition of this category because of the huge number of extremely different (and sometimes conflicting) approaches in the study of this problem. Therefore it’s necessary to group the most common scientific views. The key provisions that define the basic definition of personality are: a) presence of some individual differences, i.e. such special qualities that make each person different from all others; b) the personality represents a certain core, linking together various mental processes of the individual and endow his/her behavior with the necessary coherence and stability; c) the personality should be considered as a subject of influence of internal and external factors, including genetic and biological predisposition, social experience and variable circumstances of micro- and macro-social environment; d) the personality is endowed with stable features that provide its relative immutability and constancy in time and in varying situations [3, p.10]. So the personality - is a person who has individual, unique social and biological characteristics.

However, only such characteristics of a person are not enough to perceive it not just as a living being but as personality. The person being in social relations exercise influence on social relations and itself is influenced by external factors. Therefore, the term "personality" has a dual characteristic: on the one hand it is the human being as the subject of relationships and conscious activity, on the other, stable system of socially significant characteristics of the individual as a member of society and a subject of social relations.

Personal and social characteristics position a person in the external environment by becoming the basis of its social status. In the social aspect status means a set of rights and obligations. Indeed, the "status" is a set of rights and obligations, determining the legal status of the person, public authority or organization; composite index of position of particular class, groups or individuals in the social system - is one of the most important parameters of social stratification [4, p.357].

Social status, in turn, provides generalizing effect on the status of this person in law. Depending on what position is occupied by person due to its natural characteristics (race, social origin) or due to its own efforts (education, natural abilities) respectively are distinguished "prescribed" and "achieved" status [1, p.488]. The legal status is not only established by the state rights and obligations of a law entity. This is a much broader category that includes an active behavior of the subject regarding the realization of rights and fulfillment of duties on the protection and acquisition the guarantee of these rights, citizenship relations, liability and so on. Therefore valuable for theoretical understanding is the undeniable ascertaining that the personal characteristics perform a significant impact on the legal status of the person.

Literature:

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2. Романов Б.В. Юридическая психология: Учебник / Б.В. Романов .- М.: Юристъ, 1998. - 488 с.

3. Флоря Е. К. Личность преступника: криминоло- гическое и уголовно-правовое исследование: автореф. дис. на соиск. науч. ступени канд. юрид. наук : 12.00.08 «Уголовное право и криминология; уголовно-исполнительное право» / Е. К. Флоря. – М., 2003. – 23 с.

4. Політичний енциклопедичний словник: Навчальний посібник /За ред. Ю.С. Шемшуенка, В.Д. Бабита. – К.: Генеза, 1997. –400 с.