Ethical Code: Between Law, Morality, and Administrative Regulation of Human Behavior

The article examines the issues arising from defining the essence and specifics of an ethical code as a unique institution and regulator of human behavior. The heterogeneous nature of the ethical code as a social phenomenon existing at the intersection of law, morality, and administration in managing human behavior is subjected to detailed analysis. The author identifies and discusses evolution of the concept of law from a purely legal phenomenon to a semantically significant image present in the realm of religious and scientific experience, shaping the subject-conceptual schemes of theology, natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The juridification of various areas of social experience resulting from this fact, including moral regulation, is considered. Additionally, the article analyses the specific situation created by the ambiguity of ethics and law as different forms of public consciousness, as well as the classification of international ethical codes under soft law, and national and professional ones under self-regulation.