Ideological Foundations and Features of Western Legal Culture

The purpose of the article is to identify and analyze the ideological foundations of Western legal culture. The main attention is paid to the philosophical and legal, socio-political, religious and moral, natural and climatic factors that determined the processes of evolution of legal culture in the West. Many scientists turn to the problem of the ideological foundations of Western legal culture. The topic is interesting not only for lawyers, but also for philosophers, political scientists, historians, sociologists, as well as for representatives of other branches of science. At each stage of the development of science, different interpretations of the problems can be found, but almost all scientists agree in assessing the common roots of modern legal culture in Western countries. Usually, scholars single out Roman private law, canon law, as well as the philosophy of natural law as unifying principles. Of course, it is difficult to dispute the obvious, but it cannot be said that from a scientific point of view, this problem has been fully studied and is no longer of research interest. This article attempts to delve into the essence of the ideological foundations of Western legal culture. The author examines the problem through the prism of the forms of Western civilization - Romano-Germanic and Anglo-American, deeply interconnected and having common roots. The importance of natural and climatic conditions, geographical space, universal connections provided by the united church, which revealed that special type of personality who sought to individualize his life, is also noted. If in the East people aspired to communality, then the isolation of the individual was characteristic of the West, but it should be noted that due to the densely populated Europe, its multinational nature, the lack of free land, people were inclined to resolve conflict cases through the conclusion of an agreement on a compromise basis. These circumstances obliged people, through compromise, to establish uniform rules, the observance of which was ensured by the state. These rules were primarily focused on respect for individual rights and freedoms, respect for private property, etc. The further development of Western civilization, which was based on the ideas of respect for individual rights and freedoms, led to the birth of the foundations of civil society, the existence of which was determined by the postulates of the rule of law. The realization of the ideas of the rule of law and civil society has determined the vector of development of Western countries, which is the basis for their development in the paradigm of liberal values.