Law/1.History of state and law
PostgraduateHakimov
R.R.
Karaganda
Economic University, Kazakhstan
Legal nihilism: causes and
ways to overcome
An important
component of the individual sense of justice is respect for the law, which is
based on the realization of social value and significance of the ast as a regulator
of social relations, the means of their improvement and transformation.
Meanwhile, the characteristic feature of the domestic legal consciousnesspractically
always is a lack of respect for the law, and its opposite phenomenon - legal
nihilism.
Legal nihilism
- "a certain form of social state,
reflecting political and national historical features of society. Degree of the
legal nihilism is a kind of indicator of the health of society and the state in
which it is manifested" [1, p.36]. Therefore, legal nihilism is regarded
not only as a legal category, but as a socio-psychological phenomenon that appears
in the evaluation of law or some of its norms by individuals, social groups, or
even the whole society. Note that in the legal ideology it is reflected in the
ideas and trends: in legal psychology - in different settings, stereotypes and
lack of faith in the legal ideal; in legal practice it is characterized by
various anomalies of legal behavior or legal passivity [2, p.45].
As it seems to
us, for developing measures to overcome legal nihilism and its consequences it
is important to have an understanding of the reasons of
the emergence and spread of this phenomenon in the society. Getting to analysis
of the legal nihilism causes in modern conditions, it should be noted that this
question is invariably the subject of much scientific debate. Almost every
negative event,phenomenon,fact, trend could potentially be expressed as a
reasons of legal nihilism, which for each period of the development of country
and its legal system has its own specific character.
First, the main
cause of legal nihilism in society is pervasive corruption . Social danger of
corruption associated with the emergence of latent and illegal mechanisms of
power. The most dangerous consequences of corruption in the state and local
government is the growth of the shadow economy , the creation of conditions for
the growth of the underground and semi-legal business, which in turn leads to
an increase in the scale of bribery bureaucracy and as a result - increase distrust of the government. And these are
the first prerequisites to increase the mass fraction of nihilistic views.
Corruption creates a regime of impunity for economic crimes and financial
fraud, undermining the country's economy [3, p.66].
Secondly,the
cause of legal nihilism is disruption of people's confidence in the legislator
and the poor quality of the laws themselves. In addition«swelling»of legislative
array, numerous layers of acts and contradictions in the legal regulation of
the same questions create confusion, close to the mishmash. Prestige of legislator
declined so low that citizens in advance appreciate not yet adopted laws as
unreasonable and unjustified. Delays and protracted discussions in the working
groups and parliamentary committees , skepticism of eminent scientists ,
experts and specialists only increase doubts about the competence of legislators, about their ability to find an acceptable
resolution of problem situations , the number of which increases rapidly [4,
p.95].
Thirdly, one of
the reasons of legal nihilism is the lack of the opportunity for citizens of
Kazakhstan to influence the process of adoption of laws and government
decisions. This creates an atmosphere of alienation between the authorities and
the citizens, and stimulates negative attitude of the latter to the laws. Often
the government explains why and how the decision was made, but this is done
after its adoption. A citizen acknowledges that the government not only does
not listen to his opinion, but also detract from, and sometimes directly
violates his rights [5, p.23].
Fourth, a
significant source of legal nihilism are violations of the most important human
rights, and the violation of the principle of equality before the law,
undermining faith in the law and the state's ability to maintain order and
peace in society, to protect people against criminal encroachments. Impotence of
the rights causes irritation, dissatisfaction, protest. Law, as it were, itself is a cause of nihilism [3, p.68].
Fifth, also one
of the reasons of legal nihilism is a failure of legal reform, particularly
those that are based on the reception of Western law and the Western legal
institutions. Adherents of this position often ignore or do not attach due
importance to the fact that the reception of Western law in Kazakhstan has a
decorative nature, is crudely, without taking into account local specifics,
sometimes expressed in selective borrowing achievements of Western democracy,
even in the form of already obsolete forms, continuing traditionally [5, p.25].
These are the
most important reasons of legal nihilism, considering and analyzing which it is
possible to make conclusions about the ways and means of overcoming of this
legal phenomenon.
The main ways of
overcoming of legal nihilism are the increase of general and legal culture of
citizens, their legal and moral consciousness, especially of young people;
improving legislation; prevention of law offence, particularly crimes;
strengthening of law and order, state discipline; respect and full protection
of the rights of the individual; mass enlightenment and legal education of the population; preparation of the highly
skilled lawyers; quality legal reform.
Ultimately, all
forms and means of struggle against nihilism connected with the way out of the society from deep system crisis -
social, economic, political, spiritual, moral. However, much depends on the
active position of the personality, its counter the forces of evil.
Thus, overcome
the nihilistic tendencies in the society it is possible, but it will take more
than one decade and hard work of several generations.
Listofreferences:
1.Бондаренко М.В.
Правовая культура и правомерное поведение в современном российском обществе: Дис.
… канд. юрид. наук. ‑М., 2002.
2. Левченко И.А.
Правовой нигилизм как характерная черта современного российского общества//Вестник
ЮРГТУ (НПИ).‑ 2012.‑№ 5.
3. Сафонов В.Г. Правовой
нигилизм работников государственного аппарата и пути его преодоления: Дис.
…канд. юрид. наук. ‑М., 2004.
4. Месилов М.А. Правовой
нигилизм государственных служащих в современной России: Дис. …канд. юрид. наук.
‑М., 2008.
5.Гимаев И.Р. Правовая культура и правовой нигилизм в
обществе //Экономика и управление. ‑2006.№ 4.