Aspects of Ivan Ilyin’s Philosophy of Law and Russian Tradition of Understanding Law
Keywords:
Russian philosophy of law, jus and lex, idea of law, Moscow school of jurisprudence, natural-law theory, axioms of legal consciousnessAbstract
The author analyzes the sources of Ivan Ilyin’s philosophical and legal theory within the framework
of the Russian tradition of understanding law, and finds it similar to the ancient Russian perception
of the concepts of “right” and “law”. Compared with the 18th-century philosophy of law and various currents in the philosophy and legal science of the 19th – early 20th centuries, Ilyin’s theory seems
to posit the source of law in the spiritual experience of an autonomously developing person. The
author emphasizes that the peculiarity of the philosopher’s concept of law is his doctrine of legal
awareness, based on three axioms: the rule of self-affirmation, the rule of autonomy, the rule of
mutual recognition. The research performed has allowed to reveal the unique features of Ivan
Ilyin’s law theory, as well as to show his work as a natural continuation of the Russian tradition of
understanding law.
