REVISITING THE CONCEPT OF “COMPARATIVE LAW”

The article analyzes one of the main categories of comparative jurisprudence — “comparative law”. The alternative to the general legal theoretical science approach to consider comparative law as the doctrinal part of comparative law has been offered. The article analyzes Western and Russian approaches to the definition of the terms “comparative law” and “comparative jurisprudence”. The term “comparative law” is analyzed from the point of general legal methodology. The concept “comparative jurisprudence” has a broader content and together with methodological part of comparative legal science includes the components of both scientific and educational character. The author pays attention to the absence of normative content in the understanding of the term “comparative law” indicating exceptionally doctrinal legal nature of this phenomenon. The inner structure of comparative law depends on the system of formation and interaction of the objects of comparative jurisprudence. It is mentioned that this approach does not contradict in principle to the true opinion concerning the division of the whole comparative jurisprudence into general and special parts. The author emphasizes the necessity of the complex use of the terms “comparative law” and “comparative jurisprudence”. The necessity of formation of new category of comparative legal science – the “universal theory of law”, which has a supranational character has been proved. The scientific and educational approaches for distinguishing the concepts “comparative law” and “comparative jurisprudence” have been analyzed.