Puzhaev V.V., Romanovskaya V.B. Emmanuel Levy and Critical Legal Studies: historical parallels in the political and legal thought of the XX century

Abstract: This article is the first within the Russian legal science to research the question on the similarities of the sociological and psychological theory of the French lawyer Emmanuel Lévy and the social and legal ideas proclaimed within the framework of the Critical Legal Studies movement. The authors thoroughly examine the general peculiarities of legal understanding by Emmanuel Lévy and the supporters of the critical legal studiess of the “first wave” (Dunkan Kennedy, Roberto Unger, and others); also the ideological and theoretical foundations (philosophical, political, and legal) of their scientific views are being determined.  The authors come to the conclusion that since the beginning of the XX century, prior to the emergence within the British-American law of the school of Critical Legal Studies, the similar in its essence ideas were expressed by the lawyer and sociologist Emmanuel Lévy. These ideas include: criticism of the liberal legal tradition from the left political positions; idea on the continuity of law and politics in form of the corresponding practices; examination of the legal argument itself as a certain form of manifestation of political activity; criticism of the neutral legal principles and strict anti-formalism; as well as the perception of law as the combination of beliefs (ideologies), etc.

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