Establishment and Development of the Legal Principle of Freedom in Classical Legal Theories

Abstract

The article analyzes the main legal doctrines starting from antiquity, which influenced the understanding of freedom in the legal life of society, its influence on the formation of social order. The position of Aristotle is studied, for whom the principle of freedom is primarily a question not of individual autonomy but of the form of government. B. Konstan confirms that the principle of freedom carries out its genesis and deployment from collective to individual levels. In ancient times, society was class-based, but class struggle did not yet exist, everyone occupied his place depending on the degree of freedom and property status.
The author analyzes the position according to which Medieval European legal consciousness makes the necessary semantic transition from state-wide to individual freedom through the concept of freedom of will. Here through the prism of free will the institution of legal responsibility and legal capacity is established, since right or wrong behavior is connected with a conscious choice. The theoreticians of the natural law doctrine for the first time consider freedom as a component of human nature which can take various forms from chaos, war of all against all to the natural primordial harmony of free people.
Hegel proves the important position that law is the sphere of generality, not individuality, its norms are a transition from the individual to the general. Individual freedoms can be agreed among themselves at the general level of legal norms.
The views of I. Berlin, who singles out "positive" and "negative" freedom, are studied. The first consists in the possibility of being one’s own owner that is of freely managing one’s own personality. This approach is close to the natural original freedom, but here it already places the principle of freedom in the modern field of civilization. Therefore there is freedom to do something, think, say, and there is freedom "from something", from external interference. It was this vision that led to the classification of rights into positive and negative.
The article substantiates the position that the legal principle of freedom unfolds in social reality as opportunities and independence. In the legal regulatory plane freedom is in constant search of its limits and the balance between possibilities and arbitrariness.