Jurisprudence in the Era of Change: Subject and Structure of the Discipline

The law exists in the form of institutions and in the form of representations of institutions, since the representation of something (phenomenon) has a conceptual dimension in the representation of something (concept). Representations of law and representations of law are two aspects of the expression and manifestation of the general legal reality. This, in fact, leads to a fundamental dilemma in determining the subject of legal science. This is the science of law or the science of legal science. Given that the concept of law is a theory of law developed into a system of definitions, the practical language of law finds itself in the theoretical language of jurisprudence, and vice versa. The languages in which the law operates, and the languages in which the phenomenon of law is interpreted, constitute the general object and subject of jurisprudence. Jurisprudence is a conceptual part of legal reality, both an object and a subject of legal science. The evolution of jurisprudence in the cultural-historical logic of changes in its subject and methods is the basis for changes in its disciplinary structure and connections in the general system of social and political sciences. Each cultural and historical epoch of the existence of law corresponds to its own grammar of law and its own epistemology of law, that is, its own analytical language and disciplinary format of legal knowledge. The law exists in the definitions of its concept. The concept of law has both an ontological and epistemological status. One thinks of law because it exists, and one understands the law because it is defined. Each tradition of understanding the law can be conceptually seen in the phenomenon of law that other traditions of legal understanding do not see or do not notice. The history of the development of the concept of law (conceptualization of law) contains the history of the development of legal institutions (institutionalization of law). Both components of legal reality — objective and subjective grounds and conditions for the emergence and development of the phenomenon of law live in the framework definitions of their social culture, its language and discourse. That is, they live in historical forms of awareness and understanding of one’s own law — from the law indicated in rituals, myths, signs and symbols, to the law indicated in canonical texts, doctrines and concepts; from the law of disciplinary society to the law of network communities; from the law of political domination and bureaucratic management to the law of civil communications and network agreements.