Axiological foundations of the application of law: social, moral, cultural, and intellectual-instrumental value in the modern legal order

Abstract

The article examines the axiological foundations of the application of law as an independent phenomenon of legal reality and a central element of the mechanism of legal regulation. It is shown that the application of law should not be reduced to a merely technical transfer of a legal rule to a particular life situation, since its structure combines normative, factual, and evaluative elements. Through the application of law, law moves from a potential state into an actual social form, while a legal norm acquires an individualized meaning in connection with the circumstances of a specific case.

The principal dimensions of the value of the application of law are analysed. Its social value is linked to its integrative function and to the formation of professional legal communities and shared standards of reasoning. Its moral value is considered through the professional ethics of judges, notaries, and other actors, for whom the application of law requires not only formal competence, but also integrity, conscientiousness, and self-control. Its cultural value is expressed in the accumulation of legal experience, the maintenance of legal traditions, and institutional memory. Its intellectual and instrumental value lies in revealing gaps, conflicts, and limits of legal regulation through legal practice.

Particular attention is paid to the Ukrainian context, especially to the significance of the rule of law principle, professional codes of ethics, the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, and the activities of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights. It is generalized that the application of law should be regarded as a sphere in which the social, moral, cultural, and intellectual meanings of law are concentrated. It is substantiated that the quality of the application of law substantially affects trust in law, the effectiveness of human rights protection, and the stability of the legal order.