Methodological individualism and legal regulation of economic activity

Abstract

An adequate and flexible impact of law on the economy is impossible without differentiation of legal regulation. At the same time, the legal regime for the activities of persons must be determined by their individual economic characteristics. The philosophical basis for constructing such legal regulation, which could consider the economic characteristics of individuals, is methodological individualism. Within the framework of methodological individualism, it is assumed that the study of social processes should begin with the study of the behavior of individual individuals. In addition, legal influence on society (in particular, on the economy) is possible only through legal influence on the behavior of individuals engaged in economic activity. From the standpoint of methodological individualism, many problems of law can be rethought. In particular, the article examines the functional approach to the construction of legal norms, thanks to which the hypotheses of norms take into account economic characteristics that can individualize participants in economic activity; arguments are made in favor of the fact that the subject of legal regulation is (economic) activity; the use of deontic operators in legal norms and the classical definition of the concept of legal status are criticized; provides a new look at the theory of legal facts.