The German history of concepts and the history of political and legal doctrines: facets of interaction

The German history of concepts became popular after the translation into Russian of some articles from “The Historical Dictionary of Socio-Political Language in Germany”. This event is remarkable for legal science, since legal concepts are of particular importance for both the legislator and legal scientists when developing legal doctrine. The purpose of the paper is to apply a historical and conceptual approach to the study of state-legal phenomena in the history of political and legal doctrines. Methods: the methodological basis of this study is a systematic approach that allows to structure the constituent elements of the German history of concepts, as well as a structural and functional one, thanks to which the application of specific elements in practice was shown. Results: as a result of the analysis of the German experience of studying concepts, the author made conclusions that reflect the possibility of its use in law. First of all, the classification of concepts used in the dictionary is important. It allows you to structure and systematize the concepts used in the political and legal doctrines. The processes of transformation of concepts described methodologically by the Germans can be analyzed by analogy in Russian historical and legal science. The context of the emergence and evolution of the concepts reflects the fundamental changes in society and the state, so its description is necessary to explain the features of legal concepts. Conclusions: the adaptation of historical concepts with the help of modern legal language to the terminological apparatus of the theory of state and law is possible through the diachronic principle. The linguistic basis of the German dictionary is certainly interesting for lawyers from the point of view that the distinction between terms and concepts contributes to the improvement of legal techniques. Thus, the German history of concepts is largely interrelated with the history of political and legal doctrines, and further development of this issue is required.