Functions of Legal Doctrine: Communicative-Legal Interpretation

Abstract

Introduction. The functional approach is an effective heuristic tool for understanding the mechanisms of legal doctrine. The choice of a functional approach is of particular relevance due to the autopoietic nature of legal communication. However, the functions of legal doctrine are not yet sufficiently conceptualized within the framework of the post-neoclassical paradigm. The article analyzes and summarizes the interpretations of the functions of legal doctrine in domestic science, establishes the structure and clarifies the composition of the functions of legal doctrine in the context of the post-nonclassical paradigm. The functioning of the doctrine as a doctrinal factor of legal communication is shown on the example of the medieval doctrine of Jus commune.Methodology and materials. The study is based on the post-non-classical paradigm and the communicative theory of law by A. V. Polyakov, systemic, structural-functional approaches, comparative, formal-logical methods. The research materials include special scientific publications on the problems of legal doctrine, general works on the theory of systems and methodology of scientific research, and actual material from the history of law.Results and discussion. The structure of the functions of legal doctrine includes the subject (carries out activities), the object (experiences the impact), the activity (processes within the activity) and the purpose of such activity. The functioning of the doctrine in legal communication occurs in the form of a doctrinal factor through four functions that affect different objects of legal reality: 1) selective (selection and endowment of certain social facts with the status of legal relevance), 2) meaning-forming (conditioning the processes of legitimation and interpretation occurring in the minds of subjects), 3) prescriptive (establishment of rules of conduct by the doctrine), 4) constitutive (organization and development - construction - of the legal system).Conclusions. The study formulates the general parameters of the doctrinal factor of legal communication: the functioning of the doctrine is cumulative, combines three aspects of the objectification of the doctrinal factor (textual, cognitive and praxiological), is cyclical and renewable. The possibility of instrumental application of the structure of functions determines the practical significance of the study. Prospects for further research are related to the analysis of the action of other legal texts through a functional approach.