Methodological Problems of Identifying the Principles of Business Law

The relevance of the research topic is determined by the methodological uncertainty of the situation that has developed with the identification of principles of business law in Russian legal science. The purpose of the study is to establish the causes of this phenomenon and identify the principles of business law in Russia, based on the positivistic understanding of law. Research methods: formal legal analysis of normative legal acts (used to identify statutory principles of law), analysis of scientific literature, or historiographic analysis (used to identify various points of view expressed in the doctrine of business law regarding the principles of this branch of law). Results: the article finds out that the methodological uncertainty in identifying the principles of business law is due to the complex nature of this branch, the lack of codification of business law, and the absence of a normative legal act that would functionally replace a codified act in regulating this area of public relations. This uncertainty is also attributed to the fact that most specialists studying the problems of business law are not guided by a specific type of legal understanding and do not distinguish between normatively enshrined principles and doctrinal principles. The article proposes a definition of the principles of business law. The article concludes that currently the principles of business law are enshrined only in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, there is only one specific principle of business law – the principle of freedom of entrepreneurial activity – that is enshrined at the constitutional level (Article 34 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). All other principles of business law are either of a general legal nature (general legal constitutional principles) or of an interbranch nature. In the latter case, the principles can be enshrined both at the constitutional level and in the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.