Lecture 2. Bases of the theory of law plan

1. Notion, attributes, functions, sources, system of law. Notion and structure of legal rule.

2. Notion, attributes, structure of legal relations, reason of their origin, changing and stopping.

3. Notion and types of legal conduct. Notion, types of legitimate conduct. Notion, attributes, composition, types of offence. Notion, aim, functions, grounds (reasons) and types of legal responsibility.

1.

Law - is the special type of social norms (rules), system of obligatory, formally fixed rules of behavior, which are created, guaranteed by the state with the aim to put in order public relations.

An objective law is the system of all legal rules (norms), which operate in the state.

A subjective law is a measure of possible behavior of person.

Attributes of law:

• system;

• obligatory;

• formally fixed;

• normativeness;

• volitional character of law;

• created, provided and guaranteed by the state.

Functions of law - are the basic directions of influence of law on public relations and behavior of people, social development.

There are general social and special legal.

General social functions:

1. Humanistic is protection of mankind.

2. Organizational is the organization of common efforts of people to achieve socially useful aims.

3. Educational is a feature of development of legal understanding among people.

4. Informative (communicative) means to inform the people about the will of the legislator.

5. Evaluational is a criterion of legality or illegality of certain decisions and actions.

6. Gnosiological (cognitive) means that law is a source of cognition of the development of society.

Special legal functions:

1. Regulative means that law is regulator of legal relations and conduct of people by the legal rules.

2. Protective means that law protects the rights and freedoms of persons.

Basic sources of law:

1. Legal custom is the rule of behavior, which is sanctioned by the state, which established in society as a simple custom as a result of frequent reiteration during great while and which became tradition.

1. Legal precedent is a court or administrative decision from concrete legal case, it is obligatory for all next analogical cases. These analogical cases must be explained the same way as legal precedent.

2. Normative agreement is a written document, which contains the rule of behavior, which has general character, which is created by mutual consent of a few subjects and guaranteed by the state.

3. Legal act (legal document) is the written document of the competent bodies of the state power, in which the rules of behavior are fixed.

In Ukraine legal act (legal document) is the basic source of law.

The system of law is the internal order of formation of law, which consists of fields of law, institutes of law and legal rule (norm) of law.

Field of law is the system of legal norms, which create independent part of the system of law and regulate the separate sphere of public relations. The field of law is the largest element of the system of law. Every field of law has an object and method of the legal regulation.

There are such fields of law in Ukraine: criminal, financial, administrative, constitutional, civil, family, economic, labour etc.

Institute of law is the group of legal rules, which is the element of the system of law of the concrete field of law. These rules regulate the most homogeneous relations.

For example, there is an institute of civil responsibility in a civil law, and there is an institute of citizenship in a constitutional law.

Legal rule (norm of law) is the official, formally fixed, obligatory rule of behavior. The state creates legal rules and guards them from violations for regulation of the most important public relations.

The legal rule has a structure and consists of hypothesis, disposition and sanction.

Hypothesis is the part of the legal rule, which is expressed in the circumstances and conditions under which legal rights and obligations can be implemented.

Disposition is the part of the legal rule, in which the normal course of behavior (the right or the obligation) is reflected.

Sanction is the part of the legal rule, which determinates legal responsibility for offence.

2.

Legal relations are public relations, which are regulated by law, their participants have subjective rights and legal duties, which are guaranteed by the state.

Basic attributes of the legal relations :

1) arise up on the basis of legal rules;

2) have sides (parties), which have subjective rights and legal duties;

3) is the type of public relations of natural or legal persons, organizations and communities;

4) state controls and guaranteed realization of subjective rights and observation of legal duties in legal relations.

There are three elements of the structure of legal relations: