Social obligations: theoretical and legal aspects

The article is devoted to the study of the nature of social obligation, its genesis and variants. It has been established that historically social obligations have arisen with the emergence of the beginnings of morality in human society and the awareness of human responsibility towards one another within their community. In the future, with the development of humanity and the diversity of social interactions, the institute of obligation was modified to take on new features. Thus, if in the early periods of existence of human society, it was impossible to speak about their belonging to the legal field, given the absence of any, at least minimal, fixation of this category at the normative level, then the development of law and legislation led to the emergence of legally binding obligations. It has been researched that social obligation means a socially recognized need for a certain behavior of a person, a kind of proper or useful, which is objectively conditioned by the needs of existence and development of other persons, social groups, nations, humanity. The article also analyzes that, depending on the particular nature of the emergence of specific social obligations, the characteristics of the subject that establishes them, and defines the guarantees of its implementation, distinguish varieties of social obligation. Allocated moral obligations, religious obligations, corporate, professional, legal and other obligations. Moreover, the author considers it inappropriate to completely differentiate between these phenomena, since all of them, as embodiments of certain socially necessary behavior, are interconnected and can be considered as a logical continuation of each other. In addition, it is emphasized that the substantive characteristic of a legal obligation as a special type of social obligation is a "legal necessity". The latter, on the one hand, indicates that the obligation exists and develops within the limits of the lawful and statutory conduct required by law. On the other hand, it expresses the content of the obligation and its inherent behavior. The "need" to disclose the obligation plays the same role that the "opportunity" plays in the concept of the rights and freedoms of the individual.