The category of legal certainty in the philosophical-legal conception H. Hart

Abstract

This article is aimed at providing those interested in the problems of understanding legal certainty in the concept of the leading British philosopher of law Herbert Hart, whose works have been little explored in domestic legal thought. H. Hart, being a pioneer of analytical philosophy of law, devotes much attention to the language of legal norms, analysis of legal norms in the context of interpretation, judicial discretion and uniform law enforcement practice. The relevance of the study of his works is determined by the fact that the understanding of legal certainty and legal uncertainty as paired categories of law is one of the fundamental and strategic directions of the study of law as a social phenomenon. It is possible to achieve the sustainability of law only through a progressive process of transition from its uncertainty to certainty. This is of direct practical importance, as everyone should know the scope of his or her rights in order not to violate the boundaries of permissible behavior in society. The study of H. Hart's works will help to learn the Western traditions of legal understanding, to compare them with domestic ones, to better understand legal certainty as an ideal to which we should strive through the understanding of legal uncertainty, which is of scientific and theoretical importance for the modern understanding of the effectiveness of law and law enforcement.