Law time in Philosophical and Legal Research

Abstract

Research is devoted to the category of law time, which is urged to unveil features of functioning and development of temporary characteristics of the law as the dynamic phenomenon of law reality. The relevance of the subject lies in the basic specifics of time in law and the definition of the place and role of time in law, in the context of law processes. The purpose of this research is the formation of evidence-based knowledge of the essence, contents, and types of law time as a social construct. The methodology is based on a synthesis of sociological phenomenology and integrative law consciousness that allows a consideration of law time in the categorial and substantial relation at various levels of law reality. In the category of philosophy of law, law time is considered in this article through a prism of law communication during which there is a designing and functioning of this category. Law time is shown in horizontal and vertical law communication. As the social construct, the period, speed, and a vector, are used, which reveal the properties and characteristics of law time. Law time is characterized by its limitation in a chronological framework; the continuity assuming continuity and changes mainly of quantitative character; recurrence, in combination with operation of the dialectic law of denial of denial; fractality, which assumes the accounting of both internal and external factors, including both the situational, and strategic analysis; unevenness occurring in the law reality of processes; by intensity, which determines the pace of law communication; and by intentionality, which determines the temporal orientation of law communication. Law time is investigated by the authors chronologically as limits of the relevant law acts and processes; temporal as perception and interpretation of the law phenomena from the point of view of their direction and sequence; conceptually, from the point of view of the most abstract perception of time and an orientation of the processes happening in law reality in the context of law being in general.