Research On The Solovyof's Jurisprudence

The Russian religion philosophy differs from religion and divinity as a special philosophy. Based on their own belief and intuition and the free critic standpoint, Russian religion philosophers illustrated their own basic points about the man and the world referring the philosophy history and the divinity history. Their theory was a theory of philosophy rather than a religion theory illustrating the value of belief. Solovyof, the greatest Russian philosopher in 1900s, discussed legal problems based on the religion doctrine, the whole world being one, and the justice after religion confessing on the side of the angels. This kind of jurisprudence illustrating legal phenomena based on the religion doctrine was called Russian religion and moral jurisprudence by Russian scholars. It is also the traditional Russian jurisprudence in the general meaning. In his jurisprudence thinking, there was some penetrating judgment about the legal proposition that were explored and researched by Russian scholars in that special time. Those propositions are fundamental in legal theory. They will be discovered by the society all the time.There is introduction about the age and the theoretical foundation of Solovyof's jurisprudence in the chapter I. His jurisprudence is adjacent to the Russian traditional jurisprudence and is the excellent one. They share the same characters. The Russian traditional jurisprudence is religious, humanity, taking the problem of the relation between law and moral as the core problem, integration of the religion experience and rational thinking and tendency of solving practice problems. In his era, there was world crisis of religion thinking and philosophy and the basic value of them was confusion and collapsing. The social reform beginning from the Czar Alexander II led to the totally alteration and change in Russian society living. Under this background, Solovyof's theoretical foundation came into being, such as the whole world being one, divinity human and Sophia, a religious theory, and his own special axiology.The chapter II is focused on the history stages about Solovyof's workings and the nature of his thinking. The first stage of Solovyof's learning activities is from 1970s to 1980s and it is the time of his jurisprudence thinking coming into being. In this stage Solovyof formed the foundation of the theory of the whole world being one by researching the theory of being and epistemology. He turned to social politics and church—religion living and focused on theocracy from 1882 to 1894. He tried to reunite the east church and the west church, paid attention to the social problems and hotly argued with Russian nationalists. In 1990s, Solovyof never mentioned theocracy and his thinking was perfect and mature. His jurisprudence research was positivism. The nature of Solovyof's jurisprudence is Christian but not traditional Christian. The good component of Slavdism was absorbed in Solovyof's jurisprudence thinking, such as antinationalism, church as the full—fledged tiptop leader in people's life, comity hold by the league and the aggregation, the absolute free will of spirit unification. However, his jurisprudence did not belong to liberalism. There was difference in the understanding of human between them and Solovyof"s jurisprudence cannot be departed from his religion moral theories. Moreover, Solovyof denied being a liberalist by himself.There are concrete analyses on the nature and the function of the law dissertated by Solovyof in the chapter III. In Solovyof's jurisprudence, there is double nature in the law. The first is the substance reason that can historically explain the origin and the development of the law. He thought the law was God's summon originally existed in man's spirit and was discovered by man's rational activity. The second is formal reason or the self-definition of the law, which is organized by the categories of legal body, freedom and equality. The individual is the real undertaker of the right. The state is the exterior expression and embodiment of the law. Only can the rational person enjoy the right or be the legal body. The typical and primary character of individual is freedom. The legal freedom is determined by the recognition of other people's same liberty right, which turns freedom into other people's obligation or self—right. Solovyof defined law as freedom in terms of condition and defined codex as legal rules or conception generally accepted and none—personal (not determined by individual opinion and will). The characters of codex are open, concrete and practice applicability. Solovyof resorted to the category of the natural law to integrate the legal ideal and the legal practice so as to discover the nature of the law. Meanwhile, he analyzed the personal psychology resource of the law and pointed out that just and fair was rooted in the moral sense of mercy and sympathy, the altruism rules, fair and mercy, cannot be departed and the highest ought criterion and the real substance of fair was just. However, just was absolute ideal of love and good happiness that J.X. endowed human with. The just was based on love and self—denial, godly principle. So Solovyof took the law as the balance between individual freedom and common welfare and the settlement to the contradiction between the individual and the society totally based on the religious standpoint.There are analyses on the moral ideal in Solovyof's jurisprudence in the chapter IV. Based on many theoretical source, critically inheriting dialectic conclusion of German philosopher and combined with native traditional jurisprudence, law and divinity, Solovyof brought forward the proposition of the bottom of the good being the law. There were three level meanings in the good mentioned in his theory. First, good was the foundation of the moral in human nature, represented by the feeling of shame, mercy and respect. Second, good was social good or the moral order of human relationship. Last, good was the tiptop good or the good of the God. In his theory, there was substantial relation between law and moral. The moral presented service for the society. The just and the fair cannot be departed. The inner relationship between them was determined by the moral mission of the law. The fundamental principle of the legal order was in terms of the moral obligation of the legal body and was to protect the performance the moral obligation. The requirement of the law and the moral were united on the meaning and changed with the time, but they were continually consistent under the same social conditions. Without the fundamental status of the moral element fitting for the deserving activity in the law, there would not be existence and development of the society. There was difference in the law and the moral. For example, the extension moral requirement, the performance of the good and the influence on human behavior were all different.The philosophy of Solovyof's human rights is analyzed and remarked in the chapter V. Solovyof took the thinking of divinity human as his human rights theoretical basement. He illustrated the human value on the religious standpoint and regarded solidarity as the real principle of the equality. He emphasized that the social equality was not the result of the economic equality and the economic area must be connected with the moral area. They should not be departed. Solovyof shares the same points of human rights with Maridon. Both of them take the same point that the human natural rights are rooted in Christian culture, emphasize the human dignity and give the similar reason when demonstrating the universalism of human rights. Solovyof was the first person who defined the rights of surviving with dignity in Russia and thought that the protection of that right was not only a kind of legal obligation but also a moral duty. At the same time, he applied the theory of law as the bottom of the good to the economic area and required the maintenance of the minimum living standard or the low—level welfare for the normal person. He also carried out many human rights activities himself.There is remark on the historic meaning of Solovyof's jurisprudence in the last chapter. Solovyof was the pioneer of moral religion jurisprudence of silver age in Russia. His jurisprudence had substantial influence on Russian jurisprudence originated in the end of the nineteenth century and the early age of the twentieth century. The Christian religious tradition was back into its real rational sense and the basement in Russian jurisprudence just after Solovyof's theory. Now modern Russian legal theorists still look the points of Solovyof as the help for clearing the shortcomings of legal liberalism and they are still important on thinking of the function on the social development by the state.