Modern approaches to understanding nature legal fact as a general theoretical legal category

Author(s):  E.Y. Tsukanova, Belgorod National Research University, Belgorod, Russia, Tsukanova@bsu.edu.ru

Issue:  Volume 43, № 4

Rubric:  Actual Problems of Legal Regulation

Annotation:  The article deals with the main approaches to determining the nature of legal facts in the general theory of law. Identified three main approaches. 1. The materialistic approach according to which a legal fact is understood as a circumstance of reality. A separate direction of this approach is the position that it is necessary to consider such vital circumstances as a legal fact that are the result of the cognitive activity of authorized subjects. 2. An idealistic approach, whose supporters are based on the fact that legal fact as a legal category is exclusively in the categorical range of the legal system. A legal fact in this case is a circumstance formulated in the legal norm. 3. The material idealistic approach, according to which a legal fact has a dual nature. The essence of a legal fact in this case is revealed through the dialectical unity of the legal form (fixation of the fact in the legal norm) and material content (the presence of the fact in reality). Based on the analysis, it is concluded that the understanding of a legal fact from the point of view of different approaches depends on the views of scientists on the nature of law in general.

Keywords:  a legal fact, circumstance of reality, rule of law, legal category, legal structure.

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