LEGITIMACY AS A FEATURE OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM OF CIVIL SOCIETY

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the general theoretical aspects of legitimacy of the legal system of civil society. It is proved that legitimacy is associated with common (general) ideas, expectations, requirements and assessments of social actors on which trust in legal norms and their authority in society are based. The author emphasises that legitimacy is a fundamental and inherent feature of the legal system of civil society.

Exploring the concept of legitimacy, the authors draw attention to the fact that this feature relates specifically to positive law, the rules of which must comply with the requirements of natural law, which in turn is the basis of trust in the rules of positive law on the part of society.

According to the authors, society as a complex social system needs to be organised and interaction between its structural elements should be established. For this purpose, the state

and law appear in it, which, together with society, have gone through a long way of evolutionary development, as a result of which, in modern times, it was finally formed as a civil society based on legal (formal) freedom and equality of subjects. In this regard, there are corresponding requirements for law and state power, in particular, the requirement of legitimacy, which is the trust in these institutions on the part of society. The author notes that the legitimacy of government is closely intertwined with the legitimacy of law and is based on it.

The authors conclude that the rules of conduct established by the government and enforced by its coercive power (positive law) should be based on public trust and therefore cannot contradict the universally recognised legal values and requirements of natural law.