The international law science and psychological theory of law
Abstract
Get’man-Pavlova Irina - Assistant Professor, International Private Law Department, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Candidate of Juridical Sciences. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: getmanpav@mail.ru
Reviewof the monography writeen by Dr. Of Law A.A.Merezhko “Psyhological theory of international law” Odessa, Feniks, 2012, 244 p.
The review specifies that the beginning of the 20th century in Russian jurisprudence saw a rapid development of the doctrine of international public and private laws (hereafter IP/PL). Surprisingly, the modern Russian academic literature does not refer to the name of L. Petrazhitskiy though this scholar examined the problems of IP/PL and cooperated with many other legal scholars. In this regard, the book published in Russian by the Ukrainian scholar, LLD, prof. A. Merezhko deserves a special interest. The book is devoted to the psychological theory of IP/PL. The book by A. Merezhko shows the fundamentals of IP/PL psychological school based on the theory of L. Petrazhitskiy, reveals the major concepts, principles and institutions of IP/PL in terms of the psychological approach to legal phenomena. Having considered the definition of law and international law given by Petrazhitskiy, A. Merezhko proposes the definition of international law – imperative attributive beliefs of people as to mutual rights and obligations of states as well as other subjects of international community. The last part of the book is of a special interest as the author postulates the fundamentals of the psychological theory of international private law the origins of which were developed by L. Petrazhitskiy. The author proposes the definition of international private law in terms of psychological theory of law, considers within intellectual stuff of law, proposed by L. Petrazhitskiy. A special attention is paid to the principles of international private law in terms of psychological theory. Overall, the book by A. Merezhko is a sufficient contribution to the modern methodology of international law research and gives an opportunity to have a new look at international public and private laws.
