Axiological determinants: a comparative-historical study of Soviet and Western schools of legal understanding (1900-1990)

This article offers a comparative-historical perspective on the evolution of legal understanding in Soviet and Western traditions throughout the 20th century (1900–1990). It focuses primarily on axiological determinants—the value orientations underlying various legal concepts that shaped their development. By analyzing key stages and doctrines, we reveal how differences in the understanding of justice, the role of the state, and the individual formed unique legal paradigms, demonstrating their interconnection with the socio-cultural and political context of the era. The Russian legal tradition has always been marked by a particular attention to the moral and spiritual foundations of law, which is reflected in the works of outstanding representatives of domestic legal science. During the Soviet period of the development of Russian legal science, axiological issues were primarily examined through the lens of Marxist-Leninist ideology, which significantly limited the opportunities for a comprehensive study of the value foundations of law. The methodological framework of the article is based on the dialectical method of cognition, which allows for the exploration of the political-legal doctrines of Soviet and Western schools of legal understanding from 1900–1990. The core methodological approach of the study is historical, supplemented by comparative analysis. The methodology involves traditional document analysis and literature review. The scientific novelty of this research lies in substantiating the thesis that the confrontation and interaction between Soviet and Western schools of law over nine decades of the 20th century created a unique situation of methodological pluralism, within which fundamentally different approaches to understanding the value foundations of law, its social role, and mechanisms of influence on social relations were formed. As a result of the study, it was established that the evolution of methodological approaches to understanding the axiological determinants of legal regulation during the period of 1900–1990 reflects a complex process of interaction among various philosophical traditions, ideological systems, and socio-political factors. The analysis indicates that the differences between Soviet and Western schools of law were not limited to ideological discrepancies but reflected deeper distinctions in the philosophical foundations of legal understanding, conceptions of the relationship between the individual and society, the role of the state in legal regulation, and the understanding of traditional values as the foundation of law and order.