DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2019-1-116-123

A sociological perspective on social justice as the rule of law

Sergey N. Smolnikov
Senior Lecturer of the Department of Sociology and Politology

Perm National Research Polytechnic University,
29, Komsomolskiy av., Perm, 614990, Russia;
e-mail: Imperial2000@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0986-6631

The article considers the place of social justice in modern law. Various aspects are noted: its relationship with the social state, legal state, civilizational particularities, historical features. The question of the significance of choice between the legality and legitimacy of power as a factor in the establishment of social justice is considered. The article raises the issue of the subject-object essence of social justice. It provides a comparison of two approaches to social justice in modern Russia — liberal and conservative, and notes the contradictory nature of both. Attention is drawn to the role of elites, the intelligentsia and the people in the embodiment of the liberal project. The author reveals the historical and civilizational prerequisites for the conservative project domination, its being in demand on the part of both the authorities and significant segments of the population, and its correspondence to the historical moment. The similarity of the conservative response to the challenges facing the society in the United States, Japan, Britain and Russia is substantiated. A sociological comparison of positions on the issues of law as social justice in the West and in Russia is given. There is an increasing divergence in understanding social justice both in the countries of the West (destruction of the social contract, welfare state) and between the West and the rest of the world. The theme of justice is increasingly playing a role in causing mutual claims rather than in stabilizing and maintaining international and civil peace. The paper considers attempts to create domestic models of a just society. Social justice is regarded as a projective concept and presupposes the existence of models of the expected and ideal future of society. The world trend towards change in the ideas of the subject of law and of the paradigm shift from liberalism to transhumanism is noted. It is argued that it is impossible to identify law with social justice.

Keywords: social justice, law, legal justice, liberal project of social justice, conservative project of social justice, legal state, social state.

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Received 22.11.2018

For citation:

Smolnikov S.N. A sociological perspective on social justice as the rule of law // Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology». 2019. Iss. 1. P. 116–123. DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2019-1-116-123