Psychoanalytic jurisprudence of A.A. Ehrenzweig from the standpoint of the libertarian-legal theory of law by V.S. Nersesyants

The article discusses the main ideas of the concept of psychoanalytic jurisprudence proposed by the American lawyer A.A. Ehrenzweig in the second half of the XX century. The main objective of the article is to evaluate from the standpoint of the libertarian-legal theory of V.S. Nersesyants the ideas and provisions of this concept related to the justification of the need to expand the subject of legal studies by including in it the influence that the unconscious beginnings of the human psyche have on the formation of his sense of justice. The author shows the fruitfulness of A.A. Ehrenzweig’s attempt, using some methodological techniques developed within the framework of psychoanalysis (in particular, the idea that the human psyche repeats the main stages of human culture development in the process of its formation), to try to understand the origins of the formation of a sense of human justice, referring to the era of primitive society and mythological culture. The article suggests that the approach proposed by psychoanalytic jurisprudence to the study of the sense of justice arising at the level of the unconscious principles of the human psyche, not only does not contradict modern philosophical and legal knowledge focused on the study of man as a reasonable subject of law, but is also able to complement it.