The Concept of Personal Life: Doctrinal and Normative Legal Aspect

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the analysis and disclosure of the doctrinal and normative legal content of the concept of private life as the basis of relevant constitutional law. The authors analyze the etymology of the words «private» and «personal», where it is implied the concept of their practical identity in meaning, but it is also concluded that the concept of «personal» has an exclusive peculiar relationship and context to the individual, and the concept of «private» is related to the delimitation the personal from the common and state. That is why the category of private life is broader in the legal context. It was found that personal life can be understood as the separation of the exclusive boundaries of certain areas of human existence that have full belonging to being. However, the selection of these horizons so far gives only an understanding of the inner side of personal life, but when we introduce the category of privacy, it becomes clear what exactly we are separated from, namely, from society and the state. The authors research the certain statements of Hobbes’s natural law doctrine in particular the generalization that the personal dimension of law begins with theoretical speculation which correlates with the initial innate natural human selfishness, the so-called «right to everything» as a theoretical initial absolutisation of private property. The article points out that the personal legal principle is inherent in human existence by nature, but not every personal thing is legal. The placement of a private element in the legal space requires restrictions which T. Hobbes defines as the transference and renunciation of the absolute right to everything. The authors conclude that the natural law of treaty is important for establishing the category of private life in legal consciousness, which allows to distinguish between objective and subjective, state, public and personal in the legal life of a human. The article states that due to the deployment of the property natural law in the legal consciousness, human being is not limited to the fact of its existence, but also the peculiarities of coexistence and attitude to these or other things, as it happens with personal life and the necessity for its protection.