Cognitive Basis of Legal Order

Abstract

Law as a special social regulation tool in modern conditions acquires a universal character. For its comprehensive study, as well as for its implementation in public life, a special cognitive apparatus is required. Consequently, both in theoretical and practical terms, it is about legal thinking, which is in the focus of doctrine as a special form of mental activity. To solve scientific problems associated with this study, it is advisable to introduce the category of “cognitive basis of law and order” into science. This kind of innovation is necessary in order to disclose a mechanism for ensuring trust in society, without which the entire apparatus of legal coercion is reduced to haphazard violence and, as a result, becomes meaningless. This mechanism includes intellectual and volitional components. The former is the dominant component, as it is represented by the “cognitive apparatus of law”. It is this component which deter­mines the entire “content of law”, while ensuring its consistency, independence and completeness. The inclusion of the volitional component in the cognitive basis of law and order is explained by the fact that it is through this component the intellect is re­alized. Without an act of external expression of will none of intellectual activity in the field of law can achieve its goals. The cognitive basis of the rule of law – in conjunction with its normative and institutional foundations – ensures the func­tioning of law, while defining its existence.