The word "norm" has Latin roots. In translation, it means "standard", "rule", "sample". Norms can relate to a wide variety of processes and phenomena: social, natural, technical. The rules indicate the limits within which an object retains its ability to function, its qualities and does not lose its essence. Next, consider the concept of social norm.

Spheres of distribution

Social norms are the rules by which people's actions are regulated. They have a number of features. In particular, social norms of behavior relate directly to people, the relationship between them.

Objectivity

Being a complex structure, the sphere of relations between people needs constant regulation. In accordance with this, social norms are formed. Society itself forms them. They are formed naturally and historically. The system of social norms is created under the pressure of reality. They act as a generalization, fixation of recurring stable connections and acts of interaction. The need to reproduce and consolidate the necessary relationships, in turn, gives rise to the structure of social and normative regulation. At the same time, the influence of the subjective factor should be taken into account. Social norms cannot arise and exist separately from people's consciousness. The need for certain rules must be recognized.

Abstraction

The concept of a social norm is of a general nature. Rules are defined in the abstract, not specific to the individual. They act as standard regulatory mechanisms. Addressees are determined by indicating their characteristics: sanity, age, status, and so on. Abstraction is also expressed in repeated repetition. So, the rule begins to operate every time when a typical case arises, provided as a condition for the operation of the norm, its entry into the regulatory process. In this case, it should be noted that the norm always has a certain content. But it is expressed in a typical way, acts as a general behavioral model.

Other signs

Social norms reflect the degree of freedom of the individual. They set the limits of his capacity, activity, ways to meet their needs and interests. One of the most important features of norms is binding. In one situation or another, they have a prescriptive character. Social regulation is procedural. This means that there are certain forms, detailed procedures for the implementation and operation of the rules. Social norms are also characterized by sanctioning. Each regulator has its own mechanisms that ensure its action. A distinctive feature of the norms is their consistency. It can apply to both a set of rules and individual prescriptions.

Classification

Human social norms operate in different relationships. They manifest themselves most clearly in the political, religious, corporate, and cultural spheres. Law occupies a special place in the system of social norms. At the same time, all types of rules and regulations interact quite closely, being realized within the framework of relationships. A comparative assessment of their regulatory features is carried out taking into account their sources, the subject of management, the degree (nature) of the internal organization, the form of existence, methods of influence, means of support, goals, and others. Morality and law in the system of social norms act as the main regulatory mechanisms.

Political prescriptions

In a broad sense, they include social norms of law. However, there is an opinion that the law acts as a political instrument. At the same time, law has a natural basis and reflects the degree of freedom of the individual. In this regard, legal social norms cannot be called an instrument of politics. In this area of ​​regulation, they are classified primarily by their content and scope, as well as by the subject of regulation. In this regard, such norms can be found not only in political documents (manifestos, declarations, and so on), but also in acts of public associations, legal regulations. They can also act as rules of ethics.

When a political norm is fixed in a legal document, it acquires a certain legal status. The formation of such rules is carried out on the basis of ideas, assessments, principles and value orientations. In this case, they act as social norms of the state, being the result of people's awareness of the policy of special interests. First of all, they include economic needs. Political norms regulate the activities and relations of individual politicians, classes, nations, peoples, states and citizens.

customs

These social norms are formed historically, within specific relationships and as a result of repeated repetition. Habits become habits. These rules have the following features:

• They are in the public consciousness, and specifically in social psychology.
• They are the least prescriptive in terms of regulatory abilities.
• Customs penetrate into the sphere of consciousness of the individual sometimes deeper than moral principles.
• Their formation occurs spontaneously, due to the repeated repetition of the same behavioral acts.
• Every custom has a social basis - the cause of occurrence. Subsequently, this feature may be lost. In this case, the custom itself will continue to operate.
• Customs have a local scope.
• The means of securing these norms are public opinion and force of habit.
• Customs do not form a holistic education. This is due to the spontaneity and spontaneity of their appearance, as well as the duration of these processes.

Specificity of customs

First of all, it should be noted the features of education and the operation of customs. In this regard, they often act as a form of other social norms. These include, for example, moral principles, hygiene rules, and so on. They may also have a legal form. For example, it may be a custom of business or legal turnover. At the same time, any norm during its transformation loses its special mechanism of influence and regulatory specificity. Becoming a habit, it begins to rely on the power of habit.

Types of customs

Norms that have moral foundations are called mores. Business customs (usualities) are developed in the process of functioning of state institutions, in the course of commercial, economic activities. They operate in conjunction with legal regulations. As a variety, there are also rules governing rituals. The latter are rather complex procedures that are carried out in religious, family, and household areas. Practices of this type are called rituals. The norms governing official, solemn rites are called ceremonials.

Traditions

Tradition is a kind of custom. Its occurrence is associated with the action of subjective factors. In society, people can consciously create certain traditions, as well as contribute to their development. Therefore, the emergence of these norms is not always due to a long historical process. The tradition relies heavily on public opinion. It expresses the desire of people to preserve certain useful behaviors, values, ideas.

Legal regulations

They crowd out objectionable, harmful customs ( blood feud, for example). Socially necessary, useful norms can be endowed with legal sanction. In this case, they acquire the status of a legal custom. At the same time, customs mean less than morality for the implementation and formation of legal possibilities.

Corporate rules

They have a certain similarity with legal norms. In particular, common features include:

• Fixing in documents - regulations, charters, instructions and so on.
• Consistency.
• Availability of a fixed set of support tools.
• Clearly binding character.
• The need to ensure external control of implementation.

Distinctive features corporate rules should be considered:

• The expression in them of the interests and will of the members of a certain organization and the extension of the action specifically to them.
• Regulation of relations within the enterprise.
• Sanctioned by specific measures of influence, specific to each organization.

Features of the interaction of prescriptions

Legal norms form the basis for the formation and functioning of various associations. The Constitution deals with this issue in several articles. The law does not allow the creation of organizations harmful to the state and society. It is also forbidden for associations to go beyond the scope of the tasks and goals established in the charter in their activities. Corporate and legal norms interact in determining the legal personality of organizations - the spheres of relations in which an enterprise is allowed to enter.

Technical and legal rules

There are two positions on the issue of considering their status. According to some authors, these rules cannot be classified as social norms, according to others, on the contrary, they can. In these norms, a technical rule acts as a regulatory prescription, and a legal one acts as a sanction. Their content is determined by the laws of technology and nature. The subject of regulation is not human interactions, but the attitude of people to the object. From this position they are recognized as non-social norms. Measures to ensure them are the adverse consequences of violations of technical regulations, natural laws. Nevertheless, a number of authors consider these rules to be a kind of social norms, since:

• The actions of people are the main object of regulation.
• The rules have a social orientation, the importance of which with the development of the technical side of life is growing at a rapid pace.

Today, one of the most relevant technical norms is the one that regulates the relationship between people and the environment.

Social norms are understood as nothing more than certain patterns and rules of behavior that are entrenched in society. This consolidation occurred as a result of practical activities, in the process of which certain standards appeared, as well as behavior patterns recognized as standard. Social norms of behavior determine how a person should act in certain situations. To some extent, they also determine what a particular person should be like.

Social norms are numerous:
- moral standards. One is good and the other is bad, one is good and the other is evil. As a rule, the sanctions in this case are public censure, as well as remorse;
- rules of etiquette. These are the norms of communication, rules and so on. They determine how a person should behave in society;
- They are enshrined in laws. Their non-compliance leads to state sanctions;
- traditions and customs. They were fixed as a result of long repetitions;
- political norms. As the name suggests, they regulate political life. These rules are enshrined in international treaties, charters and so on;
- aesthetic standards. They are used in relation to a work of art, human actions, and so on;
- Regulate relations within any organizations;
- religious norms. Contained in sacred writings.

Social norms and sanctions

It is necessary that every member of society takes social norms seriously and fulfills them unquestioningly. First of all, this is necessary in order to protect the person himself and the whole society as a whole. Punishment for non-compliance with social norms - various sanctions, which can be very, very specific in this case. We are talking about and about sanctions by the state. It all depends on the specific case and on what social norms have been violated.

Social norms and their features

All these norms somehow regulate those relations that arise as a result of the implementation of socio-cultural, political and many other tasks that arise before the state, society and, of course, before the individual.

Social norms are regulators that establish a very specific and clear framework for the behavior of all participants. Of course, these norms contain the same measures and commands. Social norms are distinguished by the fact that they are not addressed to anyone, but at the same time are addressed to everyone and everyone. No one can violate them with impunity. Regulatory influence in this case is aimed at achieving a certain state public relations. For this, the mechanisms of social coercion may well be used.

The better a society is developed, the better social norms are developed in it. The sphere of their action is always Social norms are created within the collectives and intended for the same collectives.

From the foregoing, we can conclude that these norms help to make interaction between people as effective as possible.

Social norms can be characterized as follows:
- they are of a general nature, that is, they cannot be applied only to someone individually;
- they indicate how a person should behave in order to be useful to society;
- non-compliance with social norms must be followed by sanctions.

Finally, I would like to note that social norms are especially effective not when a person observes them only in order to avoid any sanctions, but when he personally realizes their significance and necessity.

Normative regulation of social relations in the modern period is carried out with the help of a rather complex and diverse set of social norms. Social norms are determined by the level of development of society - and their scope is social relations. Determining the proper or possible behavior of a person, they are created by groups of people.

Consequently, social norms are the rules that regulate the behavior of people and the activities of the organizations they create in relationships with each other. Social norms are characterized by the fact that they are:

Rules for the conduct of people, indicating what their actions should be;

Rules of conduct of a general nature (as opposed to individual rules);

Not only general, but also mandatory rules for the behavior of people in society, which are provided for this by coercive measures of influence.

Thanks to these properties, social norms are able to have a regulatory impact on social relations and the consciousness of their participants.

The variety of types of social norms is explained by the complexity of the system of social relations, as well as the multiplicity of subjects that carry out the normative regulation of social relations.

All social norms in force in modern society are classified according to two main criteria:

The method of their formation (creation);

Method of ensuring (protection, protection).

In accordance with these criteria, the following types of social norms are distinguished:

Law- rules of conduct that are established and protected by the state. Distinctive features of law as a social regulator are its formal nature, i.e. its external expression in official legal sources (laws, international conventions, court decisions, etc.), systemic or clear interconnection of legal norms, universally binding prescriptions, provision with state coercion in case of encroachment on the norms of law.

moral standards(morality, ethics) - rules of conduct that are established in society in accordance with people's ideas about good and evil, justice and injustice, duty, honor, dignity and are protected from violation by the power of public opinion or inner conviction.

Norms of customs- these are the rules of behavior that have developed in society as a result of repeated repetition over a historically long period of time and have become a habit of people; they are protected from being violated by the natural inner need of people and by the force of public opinion.

Norms of public organizations(corporate norms) - rules of conduct that are established by public organizations themselves and are protected by measures of public influence provided for by the charters of these organizations.

Religious norms- the rules of conduct, which are established by various creeds, are used in the performance of religious rites and are protected by measures of public influence provided for by the canons of these religions.

The division of social norms is also possible by content. On this basis, economic, political, environmental, labor, family norms, etc. are distinguished. Social norms in their totality are called the rules of human society.

The most important regulators of human behavior have always been customs, law and morality. As you know, the most ancient rules of human behavior were customs. The custom is closest to instinct, because people perform it without thinking why it is necessary - it's just the way it has been from time immemorial. Custom rallied and streamlined the primitive community of people, but where they did not overcome its domination, the development of society froze at a dead point, because customs stifled creative imagination, the desire for something new, unusual.

The younger sister of custom was another system of rules of conduct - morality. Moral rules arise as spontaneously as customs, but they differ from custom in that they have an ideological basis. A person does not just mechanically repeat what was performed before him from time immemorial, but makes a choice: he must act as morality prescribes to him. What guides a person, justifying his choice? A conscience that gives rise to a sense of duty. The meaning of moral duty is that one person recognizes himself in another, sympathizes with another.

Although morality, like custom, oriented a person towards the observance of collective interests, towards collective actions, it was an important step forward in comparison with custom in the formation of an individual principle in people as natural beings. Morality is a system of principles of a deeply personal relationship of a person to the world from the point of view of due. Morality is, first of all, a life guide, which expresses a person's desire for self-improvement. Its main function is the affirmation of the truly human in man. If the mechanical repetition of customs is still close to instinct, then the conscience, duty, sense of responsibility inherent in morality are absolutely alien to the natural world, they are the fruits of the "second nature" of man - culture.

It is with the culturological development of society that people gradually begin to form their own, individual needs and interests (economic, political, social). And in connection with the protection of the individual, individual person and his personal interests arose a third system of rules of conduct - law. The formation of this system is closely connected with the emergence of inequality within the community of people that followed the Neolithic revolution (the transition from an appropriating economy to a productive one). Inequality developed in two directions: inequality in prestige, and, consequently, in influence and power, and inequality in property. Naturally, the owners of these values ​​(prestige or property) have a need to protect them from the encroachments of others, as well as the need to streamline new social relations so that everyone “knows his place” in accordance with personal capabilities.

Thus, the right initially arises to express people's claims to certain benefits as a permission realized by an individual in order to satisfy his own needs through a forceful impact on other individuals. But this method of protection was not reliable enough. In addition, using force, you can not so much protect your own as appropriate other people's rights. This led to disorder, threatening the death of society. Therefore, a new organization arose in society, designed to streamline relations between people - the state, and the instrument of the state was the law - an act issued by the state and binding on pain of physical coercion. The law (and other official sources) fixed the rights recognized by society (claims to social benefits). Consequently, law can be characterized as a set of rules of conduct that define the boundaries of freedom and equality of people in the implementation and protection of their interests, which are enshrined by the state in official sources and the implementation of which is ensured by the coercive power of the state.

Currently, legal and moral norms occupy a dominant, dominant position in the regulatory system. This is not least due to the fact that both have the most extensive scope - they potentially cover the entire society. In this regard, the scope of morality and law overlap to a large extent. At the same time, they are independent elements of the regulatory system, the unity, interrelationships and interaction of which deserve special attention.

The unity of legal norms and moral norms is based on the commonality of socio-economic interests, the culture of society, people's commitment to the ideals of freedom and justice. The unity between law and morality is expressed in the fact that:

In the system of social norms, they are the most universal, extending to the whole society;

The norms of morality and law have a single object of regulation - public relations;

Like the rules of law, the norms of morality come from society;

Rules of law and norms of morality have a similar structure;

The norms of law and norms of morality stood out from the merged (syncretic) customs primitive society during its decomposition.

Law and morality serve a common goal - to harmonize the interests of the individual and society, the development and spiritual elevation of a person, the protection of his rights and freedoms, the maintenance of public order and harmony. Morality and law act as a measure of the individual's personal freedom, set the boundaries of the permitted and possible behavior in the situation regulated by them, and contribute to the balance of interests and needs. They are fundamental general historical values, are part of the content of the culture of the people and society, show the level of social progress of civilization.

However, the norms of law and norms of morality still differ from each other in the following features:

Origin.

Moral norms are formed in society on the basis of ideas about good and evil, honor, conscience, justice. They acquire mandatory significance as they are recognized and recognized by the majority of members of society. The rules of law established by the state, after coming into force, immediately become binding on all persons within their scope.

According to the form of expression.

Norms of morality are not fixed in special acts. They are contained in the minds of people, exist and act as a set of unwritten rules in the form of teachings and parables. Recent attempts to impose on society the commandments clearly formulated by higher party authorities in the form of the Moral Code of the builder of communism (“Man is a friend, comrade and brother”) can hardly be regarded as a successful experiment. In turn, legal norms in modern conditions most often receive written expression in official state acts (laws, decrees, decisions, court decisions, etc.), which increases their authority, makes their requirements clear and definite.

According to the mechanism of influence. Law can only regulate the actions of people, i.e. only such actions (or inaction) of them that are perceived and recognized by the acting subject himself as social acts, as manifestations of the subject, which express his attitude towards other people. Legal norms cannot directly interfere with the world of thoughts and feelings. Legal meaning has only the behavior of a person or a team that is expressed outside, in the external physical environment - in the form of body movements, actions, operations, activities performed in objective reality.

“Only insofar as I manifest myself, insofar as I enter into the realm of reality, do I enter into the realm that is subject to the legislator. Apart from my actions, - wrote Marx, - I do not exist for the law at all, I am not at all its object. Therefore, a person cannot be held legally responsible for base feelings and dirty thoughts, if they have not been objectified outside in one or another public form, but morality unequivocally condemns both. Morality makes demands not only on the nobility of actions, but also on the purity of thoughts and feelings. The action of moral norms is carried out through the formation internal installations, motives of behavior, values ​​and aspirations, principles of behavior, and in a certain sense does not imply the existence of some externally established regulatory mechanisms in advance. As you know, the main internal mechanism of moral self-regulation is conscience, and the informal, external mechanism is customs and traditions as the centuries-old collective wisdom of the people.

By way of protection from violations.

The norms of morality and the norms of law in the overwhelming majority of cases are observed voluntarily on the basis of people's natural understanding of the justice of their prescriptions. The implementation of both norms is ensured by internal conviction, as well as by means of public opinion. Society itself, civil institutions, collectives decide on the forms of response to persons who do not comply with moral prohibitions. At the same time, the moral influence can be no less effective than the legal one, and sometimes even more effective. "Evil tongues are worse than a gun!" exclaimed Molchalin in Griboedov's famous play. Such methods of protection are quite sufficient for moral standards. To ensure legal norms, measures of state coercion are also used. Illegal actions entail the reaction of the state, i.e. special legal responsibility, the procedure for imposing which is strictly regulated by law and is of a procedural nature. A person is punished on behalf of the state. And although in each individual case the interests of individual "private" persons may be directly violated, the state cannot entrust the application of measures of legal responsibility to the offender to these "private" persons. The offender openly opposed his will to the general will embodied by the state in the norms of law, and his condemnation and punishment should be not only personal, but also state in nature. The state, even in the offender, must see “a person, a living particle of society in which the blood of his heart beats, a soldier who must defend his homeland, ... a member of the community who performs public functions, the head of the family, whose existence is sacred, and, finally, most importantly, a citizen states. The state cannot lightly remove one of its members from all these functions, for the state cuts off its living parts from itself every time it makes a criminal out of a citizen.

The consequences of immoral, immoral behavior can also be severe and irreparable. However, the violation of moral norms, in general, does not entail the intervention of state bodies. In moral terms, a person can be an extremely negative person, but he is not subject to legal liability if he does not commit any illegal acts. Responsibility for violation of moral standards is of a different nature and does not have a strictly regulated form and procedure for implementation. Morality has a traditional and rather limited system of sanctions. Punishment is expressed in the fact that the violator is subjected to moral condemnation or even coercion, measures of social and individual influence are applied to him (remark, demand for an apology, termination of friendly and other relationships, etc.). This is a responsibility to the surrounding people, collectives, family and society, and not to the state.

In terms of detail.

Moral norms act as the most generalized rules of behavior (be kind, fair, honest, do not envy, etc.). The requirements of morality are categorical and do not know exceptions: “thou shalt not kill”, “thou shalt not lie”. Legal norms are detailed, in comparison with moral norms, rules of conduct. They establish clearly defined legal rights and obligations of participants in public relations. Giving a specific formula of lawful behavior, the right seeks to designate in detail all the options for prohibitions. For example, the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” in the criminal law is represented by a whole register of compositions: simply murder; the murder of a newborn child by a mother; murder committed in a state of passion; a murder committed when the limits of necessary defense were exceeded or the measures necessary to detain a person who committed a crime were exceeded; and even causing death by negligence. In addition, as we see, the law considers it lawful (subject to the conditions established in the law) to cause death in a state of necessary defense, or during the arrest of a criminal.

By scope.

Moral norms cover almost all areas of human relations, including the legal sphere. Law affects only the most important areas public life regulating only public relations controlled by the state. As already noted, morality is designed to influence the inner world of a person, to form a spiritual personality, while law is not able to invade the sphere of feelings and emotions, into the deep inner world of a person. However, the scope of morality is not unlimited. Most of the legal procedural and procedural aspects (the sequence of stages in the lawmaking process, the procedure for conducting a court session, inspecting the site in case of a traffic accident) are ethically neutral and, therefore, cannot be regulated by morality.

We must not forget that in each country, as a general rule, one single and unique system of law is officially recognized, to which the entire population of this country must obey. Moral requirements do not constitute such a single and unique system. Morality can be differentiated in accordance with the class, national, religious, professional or other division of society: the dominant morality is corporate, the morality of the ruling elite and the ruled. The group "morality" of the especially criminalized and marginalized parts of society more often diverges from legal regulations common to all citizens, of which striking examples can be found in considerable numbers in the life of modern Russian society. However, their replication through means mass media without due emphasis on the negativity and extreme pathology of such phenomena, it already leads to the spread of such subcultures of individual groups to the whole society (for example, in the language of everyday communication).

Differences in moral principles and moral attitudes exist not only between certain social groups (you can point out the features of the professional ethics of doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.), but also between people of the same social group. Suffice it to recall the individual set of morals of one of the heroes of the novels by L.N. Tolstoy - Vronsky: “Vronsky's life was especially happy because he had a set of rules that undoubtedly determined everything that should and should not be done ... These rules undoubtedly determined that you need to pay a cheater, but you do not need a tailor; that men should not lie, but women can; that you can’t deceive anyone, but you can deceive your husband; that one cannot forgive insults and one can insult, etc.” It is clear that such "individual" legal norms cannot exist.

According to the principle of action. In the legal literature, it has long been noted that the rule of law proceeds from formal equality between those people to whom it applies. Law in this sense is the application of an equal measure to different people. For example, in modern society, the principles of universal and equal suffrage operate, according to which all voters have one vote, although someone is educated, and someone is not very well versed in political problems, and someone is worse, etc. . But the law cannot act otherwise, because it protects and expresses the interest of each - in this case - the voter, and the interests of all voters are equal. Morality does not recognize this equality. According to its canons, to whom more is given, more will be required.

The differences between law and morality serve as the basis for their interaction and cooperation. They serve high goals - the ideals of goodness and justice, the achievement of harmony and prosperity, the development of the individual and society, the provision and maintenance of public order. The implementation of legal norms, their implementation is largely determined by the extent to which they comply with moral standards. In order for legal norms to operate effectively, they, at least, must not contradict the moral values ​​of society. In some cases, law helps to rid society of obsolete moral norms. For example, it was through law that the process of overcoming blood feuds, one of the postulates of morality of the past, took place. At the same time, a number of legal norms (in particular, criminal norms) directly fix moral norms in the law, reinforcing them with legal sanctions.

In this regard, it cannot be categorically argued that the law is enforced only by coercive methods. After all, the majority of citizens comply with legal norms voluntarily, and not under fear of punishment. Of course, the implementation of the law is a complex process in which methods of persuasion, prevention, education are also used in order to encourage subjects to obey the law. Psychological research has shown that factors such as trust, honesty, truthfulness, and a sense of belonging are much more important than coercion in ensuring compliance with the rules. As G.J. Berman, it is precisely when the law is trusted, and coercive sanctions are not required, that it becomes effective: whoever rules the law does not need to be everywhere with his police apparatus. Today this has been proved by contradiction, by the fact that in our cities that branch of law, the sanctions of which are the most severe, namely, the criminal one, has turned out to be powerless and cannot generate fear where it has failed to create respect by other means. Today, everyone knows that no amount of force that the police can use can stop urban crime. Ultimately, crime is held back by the tradition of law-abidingness, which, in turn, is precisely based on a deep conviction that law is not only an institution of secular politics, but is also related to the highest goal and meaning of our life. Closely adjoining, law and morality, as a rule, support each other in streamlining social relations, positively influencing the individual, in shaping a proper moral and legal culture among citizens, and in preventing a number of crimes. Crimes such as gambling, prostitution or drug addiction generally do not involve a conscious desire to cause harm, but are referred to as "victimless crimes". In this case, it is not enough to abolish the usual criminal sanctions associated with imprisonment or fines for them, thereby freeing up a lot of time and energy of the police, courts and penitentiary authorities. Here it is more expedient to create new legal procedures, both within the framework of the criminal courts themselves and outside them: new public services such as liturgies - for making decisions (as long as the behavior of such persons is antisocial), including the participation of psychologists, social workers, clergy, and also family members, friends, neighbors - before, during and after the hearing. Most offenders are by no means sick people, and we must approach these cases more humanely and creatively, condemning not people, but their behavior and the specific conditions that give rise to this behavior.

So, in the process of exercising their functions, law and morality should help each other in achieving common goals, using their own methods for this. And the challenge is to make this interaction as flexible and deep as possible. This is especially important in those relations where there are lines between the legally punishable and the socially reprehensible, where legal and moral criteria are closely intertwined. Moral and legal criteria are the basic concepts - good, evil, honor, dignity, duty, etc., as well as the principles - justice, humanism, respect, openness, formal equality, etc.

This complex interdependence of law and morality is expressed in the fact that these fundamental principles are nevertheless common, universal for the entire normative and regulatory system of society. However, it is in law that justice, as a formal expression of equality in freedom, characterizes mainly the external commitment to morality, connected with it only through a regulatory form, and not internal content. Approximately the same opinion is shared by V.S. Nersesyants: “... justice is included in the concept of law ... law is by definition fair, and justice is an internal property and quality of law, a legal category and characteristic, not extra-legal ... only law and fair. Indeed, justice is actually fair because it embodies and expresses universally valid correctness, and this, in its rationalized form, means universal legitimacy, i.e. the essence and beginning of law, the meaning of the legal principle of universal equality and freedom. Both in meaning and etymology (iustitia) goes back to law (ius), denotes the presence of a legal principle in the social world and expresses its correctness, imperativeness and necessity.

Law and morality fruitfully "cooperate" in the field of administration of justice, the activities of law enforcement and justice. This can be expressed in various forms: when resolving specific cases, analyzing all kinds of life situations, illegal actions, as well as the personality of the offender. Often the law cannot qualify this or that act as an offense (crime) without appropriate moral criteria (such an act is evil), since otherwise it is impossible to correctly determine the signs and measure of responsibility for such acts as “hooliganism”, “insult”, “ slander”, “humiliation of honor and dignity”, evaluative concepts of “cynicism”, “special cruelty”, “self-interest”, “base motives”, “personal hostility”, “moral harm”, etc., acting as motives and elements of many offenses.

The close interaction of the norms of law and morality does not mean that this process is smooth, smooth and conflict-free. Sharp contradictions, collisions, and discrepancies can quite often arise between them. Moral and legal requirements do not always and not in everything agree, and often directly contradict each other. For example, in Rus', mutual assistance was widely known in catching a criminal at the scene of a crime, a thief in a theft, or an adulterer in the arms of someone else's wife. Punishment followed immediately and did not entail consequences - blood feud, as it was considered as a matter of course (performed according to conscience, according to custom). Also in Soviet period polygamy was condemned both by morality and prosecuted by the Criminal Code (punished by imprisonment). Meanwhile, the modern Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in relation to such acts is simply silent, i.e. completely neutral, and in the moral sphere, this offense refers to a very serious immoral behavior that destroys the family union as the basis of the moral socialization of the individual and the foundations of society.

The reasons for the contradictions between law and morality lie in their specificity, in the fact that they have different methods regulation, various approaches, criteria for assessing the behavior of subjects. What matters is the inadequacy of their reflection of real social processes, the interests of various social strata, groups, classes. The discrepancy between law and morality is caused by the complexity and inconsistency, the imbalance of social life itself, the endless variety of life situations that arise in it, the emergence of new trends in social development, unequal level of moral and legal development consciousness of people, variability of social and natural conditions, etc.

Morality is by its nature more conservative than law, it inevitably lags behind the flow of life, from the trends of the economic, scientific, technical and political development of society, and, accordingly, from the short stories of legislators who seek to reflect them in regulatory legal acts. Morality was formed over the centuries, and the content of legal norms to one degree or another changed with each new political system. And now the law is more mobile, dynamic, active and elastic in responding to the ongoing changes (problems of sex change, homosexuality, euthanasia and abortion, changing the sex of the fetus to early stages pregnancy at the request of the parents, etc.). Law, with its indefatigable temperament and youth, novelty and revolutionary character, formality and utilitarianism, as it were, pushes morality in its development to changes corresponding to the current level of development of society.

Between the norms of law and morality, there may arise and conflict situations which are negative not only for the individual, but for the whole society as a whole. Much of what is permitted by law can be prohibited by moral norms, and vice versa, what prohibits law allows morality. Thus, for example, the norms of Russian legislation (the 1992 Law “On the Transplantation of Human Organs and (or) Tissues”) establish the presumption of “an individual's consent to transplantation”. Meanwhile, a number of citizens, due to various moral and religious beliefs, are categorically against their deceased relative being a donor, however, the law requires transplantation to save the lives of other people, if the deceased did not express in the prescribed form his unwillingness to be the object of transplantation. Equally acute is the problem of euthanasia. Some believe that the moral duty of a doctor is the humane cessation of suffering, others that the intervention of other persons in matters of life and death is immoral. There are supporters and opponents of euthanasia both in countries where it is officially allowed (the law allows, but morality condemns), and in countries where it is officially prohibited (the law prohibits, but morality allows).

Also ambiguously evaluated by law and morality, for example, cloning (repetition of the genotype from stem cells) of animals and humans, multiple marriages and divorces by the same person. Meanwhile, it is obvious that another more acute problem arises here - the moral goals and guidelines for science itself, scientific activity and scientific experiment. Can science, moving along the path of progress and evolution, even for the most noble purposes of enlightenment and knowledge of scientific truth, violate moral imperatives?

The consequences of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the creation in 1953 of A.D. Sakharov's hydrogen bomb, capable of destroying all life within a radius of several tens of kilometers, was supposed to sober up humanity and put an end to this issue for all of science. And the point here is not in immoral and unprincipled politicians who can use it for their own selfish interests, but in science itself, which, deifying itself, has broken away (partly through the fault of the state) from society, its moral and spiritual environment, its vital interests . It cannot be outside of moral principles, but, on the contrary, it must observe, affirm and even fight for them together with the active part of society, indicating the directions for a balanced, and not pathological, progress of civilization. And, unfortunately, law, being at the forefront of social change, does not cope with the difficult task of containing spiritual and moral pathologies in all spheres of society's life, and sometimes it intensifies them.

Thus, the specific gravity, the scope of this or that regulator in different historical epochs either expanded or narrowed. In the current conditions of the crisis state of Russian society and the entire civilization, the contradictions between law and morality have become extremely aggravated. The threshold of moral requirements for the individual and society has sharply decreased. The legalization of many dubious forms of enrichment, the unbridled pursuit of profit and pleasure of undeveloped souls have greatly undermined the moral foundations of society.

Social and spiritual values ​​have changed. The morality of the undeveloped majority of society has become more tolerant and indulgent towards all sorts of dexterity and illegal actions. As a result of the massive criminalization of society, law does not effectively exercise its regulatory and protective functions, sometimes it simply “does not notice” many dangerous antisocial phenomena.

It should be noted that the optimal combination of ethical and legal has always been an intractable problem for all legal systems. And, as experience shows, ideal harmony cannot be achieved here - contradictions inevitably persist, new ones arise, old ones are aggravated. They can be reduced to some extent, weakened and smoothed out, but not completely removed.

Not a single society has reached the heights of morality, since morality is not an absolute constant, but a relative one. This is an endless search for the ideal and harmony, balance and conformity, adequacy and proportionality, justice and expediency, humanism and retribution. This is a movement towards development, improvement and self-improvement, infinity and progress.

A person lives in a society and it is impossible for him not to accept the rules of this society. From childhood, we are taught how to act, what to do, what is right and what is not. And when we acted differently than we were taught to act, we, then still small, were punished. It was then that we first encountered social norms. It was in childhood that we began to understand what social norms are. Of course, one should not think that all countries have the same social nomes, one must also take into account the cultural factor. So, in some cultures it is customary to bow at a meeting, and in some it does not play any role.

social norms

Throughout our lives, we meet many people. Previously, back in the primitive world, people were content with a charter that was pleasant in their tribe or community. They were greatly influenced by beliefs, myths, rituals, customs and rituals. Later, the church influenced, and recently, the state began to play a huge role. It should be borne in mind that the diversity of a person’s occupations, his activities in society has led to the separation and great variety of his daily rules of conduct.

The definition of a norm is understood as “worthy of a model”, “rule of imitation”, etc. Its significance lies in the fact that it shows the boundary of a phenomenon, an object, while it retains its significance.

For example, technical norms are created to regulate the world and technology and people, but social ones, in turn, regulate our relations in society (between people and other structures). Social norms are rules. They are important in human relationships, they are designed to take into account our interests and the interests of other participants in these norms (general human norms, norms of social groups).

Signs of social norms

1. Regulation of situations occurring in our lives (public relations). This can be understood as behavior in a public place, attitude towards the older generation, holding rallies, organizing holidays, etc.
2. These rules are always repeated many times. Example: if the situation repeats itself, then these norms regulate it again, they are not one-time social norms of a person.
3. Social norms are not created for one person or group of people, they are created for many participants of the state or even several states at once.
4. Violation of these norms may not be punished by the state, but condemnation from the people always follows.

The concept of social norm and its properties

Social norms are our rules of conduct in society. It is thanks to them that we interact with each other, they indicate the model of our behavior.

• Social norms are general. Norms operate without ceasing, and are designed for the whole society.
• These rules are mandatory. They were created to create order in society and therefore their instrument of pressure is public opinion and its court.

Summing up, we can safely say that public opinion never ceases to act, is protected by the people themselves, affects the whole society. By complying with all of the above, we comply with social values ​​and norms

Types of social norms

As we wrote above, as usual, social norms are called moral norms, our customs, norms of public organizations, but sometimes other types of social norms are also distinguished: cultural norms, aesthetic norms, political norms, organizational norms, religious norms, labor group norms, norms, traditions. Also, this norm may, as well as be enshrined in legislation, and not enshrined. Social values ​​and norms are very important for the cultural heritage of people, as they help to maintain not only the cultural part of the norms for society, but also the moral and many other important norms.

• Social norms of morality. They teach us what is evil in the society of residence, and what is good, what is justice and injustice, what is good and what is bad ... and so on.
• Social norms of customs. These are the rules that have become a habit of the people after their repeated repetition and transmission to their children.
• Corporate rules. Basically, this is the charter of the organization, and the norms of behavior in the organization prescribed in it.
• Religious norms. These norms are not contained in the law of the state, but in sacred books. Such as the Bible, the Koran and others.
• Legal norms. These norms can be established both by the state itself and by the people living in it.
• The norms established for participants in the political process (parties of presidential candidates, political organizations) regulate political relations.
• Tradition norms. These norms developed gradually and historically. They transmit general rules maintaining family and national foundations.
• economic rules. These norms govern the rules for the production, distribution and consumption of produced material for man.
• business rules. They represent a set of rules for business communication (industrial, scientific, educational communication). They regulate the daily attitude of people.
• Etiquette rules. They regulate the external behavior of a person, regardless of his work. Etiquette varies for different countries, as it has evolved historically under the great influence of culture.

We really hope that you have understood what social norms of a person mean, and have realized the importance of observing and maintaining culture in our world.

In society, along with legal ones, there are social norms - general rules of conduct that are created by society itself, citizens and regulate their behavior and activities. These include norms of morality, ethics, customs, traditions, norms of external culture, political, corporate, etc.

social norms- these are obligatory and objectively necessary rules of behavior, joint human existence, regulating the boundaries of possible and proper actions.

Social norms are characterized by the following main features:

1. They are general rules, that is, they are applied an indefinite number of times to all individuals whose behavior or activities fall under a given social norm. They operate constantly.

2. Social norms regulate the volitional and conscious activity of people. Individuals must know them and be guided by them. This means that social norms are addressed to people who have reached a certain age and do not suffer from mental illness.

3. The implementation of social norms is ensured by the citizens themselves, public organizations that apply measures to violators negative impact: moral or ethical condemnation, exclusion from membership public organization etc.

4. The nature and content of social norms, their orientation are determined by the objective circumstances of the existence of a given society, the state of its economy, the material security of the population, the level of development of culture, morality, morality, historical traditions and customs, the mentality of the nation, and other real factors. For example, the social norms of a slave-owning society differ from modern social norms, the social norms of European countries differ from Asian ones, the rules of one religion differ from another.

5. Social norms tend to prescribe positive behavior that is useful to people, in line with their interests.

They contribute to the progressive development of society.

Along with the positive in society, there may be social norms directed against honest people, their respectable, conscientious behavior. Such norms include, for example, the rules of various criminal communities. They are condemned by the majority of citizens, do not exist openly, have a secret and local character. In the total number of social norms, they occupy an insignificant place.

The peculiarity of social norms is that they are historically created by society itself, by people in the process of their relationships, and when created, they regulate their behavior.

A social norm can be characterized as a rule that permits, obliges or prohibits any action or behavior of a person. For example, it is generally accepted that a young person must give way to a woman or an elderly person on public transport. On the contrary, it is not customary, for example, to talk loudly and even more so to shout in public places, etc.

The presence of social norms makes it possible to exercise control over a person's behavior in society and determine his actions as correct, i.e., corresponding to the rules of behavior, and incorrect, i.e., inconsistent with these rules.

2. Norms of law in the system of other social norms

The main social norms are legal. They differ significantly from other social norms. This difference is as follows:

1. Legal norms, as a rule, are created by the state as authoritative prescriptions that cannot be changed or canceled by citizens, public or other organizations. They can only be changed or canceled by the relevant state authorities.

Other social norms are created by people themselves, public organizations, and they can change or cancel them. These norms can be changed or canceled by the state if they contradict the norms of law.

2. The implementation of the norms of law is ensured by the power of the state, and the implementation of other social norms is ensured either by the society itself, by people, or by the relevant public, religious and other formations.

3. In case of violation of the law, the state authoritatively brings the offenders to legal responsibility, applies various penalties to them.

Violation of other social norms entails a social impact on violators, which is accepted either by the citizens themselves (for example, moral condemnation), or organizations in accordance with their charters.

4. Rules of law are always expressed in certain written acts, for example, laws. Other social norms, for example, the norms of morality, morality, are not fixed in writing, but are contained in the minds of people. Some non-legal norms, such as the norms of public organizations, may be expressed in written statutes.

5. Rules of law form a single hierarchical and interconnected system. Other social norms do not have such a system. They are divided into separate and independent groups related to various types social norms. So, for example, there are norms of morality, ethics, customs, traditions, norms of public organizations, various religions, etc.

6. Rules of law regulate the behavior of citizens, public and other organizations, business structures, state bodies and even the state as a whole, i.e. they are of a universal nature.

Other social norms regulate mainly the behavior of citizens, they are not universal.

7. Rules of law regulate the most important, main public relations. Other social norms regulate less significant social relations, for example, the mutual behavior of citizens in public transport, at a meeting of members of a public organization, in the process of worship, collective prayer, etc.

Legal norms are more rigid and categorical in comparison with non-legal ones, which are less definite and more lenient.

Due to the fact that legal and other social norms are closely interconnected, are in the same system and are determined by the same social conditions of society, often the same human behavior is regulated by them simultaneously. For example, theft of someone else's property is morally condemned and is a criminal offense.

There are the following types of social norms: 1).customs- these are stable rules of people's behavior, which are formed historically as a result of repeated repetition, are stored in the minds of people and protected with the help of public opinion; 2). religious norms- this is a set of such rules of conduct that express a certain worldview and worldview, based on faith in supernatural forces and the existence of God; 3). corporate norms is a set of rules of conduct that a corporate organization establishes to regulate relations between its members. Corporate norms should operate within the limits of the powers established by the state;

four). political norms- these are rules of conduct that are of a general nature, which are established and sanctioned by the subjects of the political system for the formation and use of state power;

5). organizational norms- these are the rules of conduct that govern relations related to organizational and production tasks.

Another classification divides social norms into the following types:

1) moral standards; 2) family norms; 3) ethical norms; 4) norms of traditions and habits; 5) business habits; 6) rules of etiquette.

Social norms, in addition, characterize the following features:

1) the subject of regulation is public relations;

2) subjects of social norms - people who are representatives of the social sphere.

Relationship between law and morality:

1) law and morality serve a common goal - to improve and streamline public life, regulate people's behavior, maintain order, harmonize the interests of the individual and society, ensure and exalt the dignity of a person;

2) law and morality help each other in streamlining social relations, in shaping people's established legal and moral culture;

3) the law obliges to observe the laws, morality also strives to the same;

4) morality acts as a value criterion of law.

Moral norms are connected to all stages of the formation and social action of law. They are also a significant factor in improving the legal system.