Private and public law as initial legal principles in the works of Sergey Sergeevich Alekseev

This topic is updated by the recent change in the nomenclature of legal scientific specialties, where the central place is assigned to public and private law. The purpose of the article is to study the approaches of S.S. Alekseev to the analysis of private and public law; to their interaction and relationship. Special legal, biographical, hermeneutical and comparative legal methods are used. S.S. Alekseev justifies that the main division of law expresses its deep, initial principles, and hence the fundamental features that appear within the framework of these areas of law, each of which is distinguished by a kind of legal instrument. S.S. Alekseev proves that the main division of law expresses its deep, initial principles, and hence the fundamental features that are manifested within the framework of these areas of law, each of which is distinguished by a kind of legal instrument. Public and private law have their own «spirit», the initial beginnings, the principles, features. Moreover, despite the «strength» and the leading nature of public law in modern legal systems, private law is historically and logically the first subsystem of law that laid its fundamental features in general. The two legal subsystems cannot exist without each other. They are inseparable, but everyone has its own tasks, functions, and its own subject of regulation. Public law is necessary for the authorities to regulate their existence and manage the affairs of society, but the state apparatus is less interested in the existence and development of private law. However, without private law, or if it exists, but with serious diminution or deformation, public law also suffers. Private law disappears under socialism and therefore a logical and important result of the study of the teachings of S.S. Alekseev on public and private law today, in the context of the country's transition to democracy, respect for human rights and a market economy, is the conclusion that the revival of private law in Russia is necessary.