About moral foundations of legal discourse: ethical and philosophical analysis

The article deals with the question of the moral foundations of legal discourse. Investigating the general features of discourse as a social phenomenon, the author gradually proceeds to determine the essential features of legal discourse and to establish his moral grounds that contribute to a more effective settlement of the specific situation of a legal conflict. Particular importance in the article is given to the problem of the legal language, which is a means of bringing participants of the legal discourse closer together and contributing to the achievement of the goal of successful communication. The author believes that, despite the conciliatory orientation of the legal discourse, nevertheless, its participants, in order to defend their controversial claims, especially in the field of practical jurisprudence, often disregard its rules and use immoral speech tactics such as forgery, intimidation, discredit. An important role is played by the idea that in legal discourse such ways of expression as moral evaluation and judgment about the normative are possible only in relation to the addressee as to a person endowed with freedom of expression, since morality is the property of subjects as free and responsible individuals. Such an approach does not indicate, however, that the phenomenon of legal discourse is aimed only at meeting the ordinary needs of social communication. Of great importance, in this case, is the way in which it is conducted and the motivation of its participants. At the end of the article, the author formulates a series of conclusions relevant to the structure of the scientific article. The source base of the article is presented by references to the scientific works of domestic and foreign researchers in the field of problems of “simple” and legal discourse.