A theoretical model of equitable rights and legal obligations: the state-legal reality

The relevance of research. The main topic of the current issue of the legal journal “Legal Concept” = “Pravovaya Paradigma” deals with a very urgent and acute problem: the problem of socio-economic transformations affecting the equitable rights and legal obligations of citizens and legal entities in modern conditions. The editor analyzes the concepts of equitable right and legal obligations as elements of the theoryof legal relations. The close interrelation of the categories “equitable right,” “rights and legitimate interests,” and “legal obligations” is revealed. Equitable rights and legal obligations are studied by the authors of the scientific papers on the main topic of the issue as elements of various areas of public relations arising in modern socio-economic realities. The scientific novelty of the conducted intersectoral research on some aspects of the preservation and defense of equitable rights is manifested in the fact that this category has undergone a significant evolution in terms of its understanding and interpretation, which is proved by the authors of the heading “The main topic of the issue” through the example of several branches of legal regulation as well as public relations, which are different in their social, economic, and legal nature. The methodological framework for the collective research is made up of general scientific methods of cognition used in the social sciences in general, including legal ones. They form a system of general, special, and private methods of scientific research. Among the most significant general methods of cognition are historical materialism, formal-logical and statistical methods, analysis, induction, deduction, and consistency. The special and private methods are presented in the scientific papers under this heading mainly by the legal- dogmatic (formal-legal), comparative-legal, and regression analysis methods. The results of the study. During the analysis of the scientific papers presented under the heading “The main topic of the issue,” the author of the editorial column turned to the fundamental works of famous Russian, Soviet, and modern scientists, whereby it was revealed that the category of “equitable right” is closely related to the category of “rights and legitimate interests” as well as to the category of “legal obligation.” It is established that the category of “rights and legitimate interests” is based on the concept of “equitable right.” The contribution to the formation and development of the doctrine of equitable rights, rights and legitimate interests of Russian lawyers, in particular Professors B.N. Chicherin,G.F. Shershenevich, S.A. Muromtsev, and Soviet and modern lawyers, in particular S.S. Alekseev, S.N. Bratusya, N.A. Barinov, S.A. Burmistrova, S.V. Tretyakov, Yu.N. Andreev, etc., is investigated. In turn, it is revealed that an equitable right in general terms as a claim is the right to protection or the right to a claim in the substantive sense, which makes it possible to enforce the debtor’s obligation in case of its breach by the latter. The concepts of equitable rights and legal obligations are analyzed within the framework of the theory of legal relations. Conclusions. It is proven that equitable rights are a measure of permissible behavior by a person. This is the possibility of positive behavior by the authorized person himself; the opportunity to demand the behavior from the obligor; the opportunity to resort to state coercion. It is established that the social attitude is primary, and equitable right and legal obligation constitute its elements, due to the fact that the transformations of the legal regulation of equitable right and legal obligation are directly dependent on the socio-economic transformations of the social order and are objectively subject to evolutionary processes.