Legal nihilism is negative attitude toward

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

. Legal nihilism is "an erosion of the belief in law as a beneficial institution of societal organization." Many scholars believe that legal nihilism is a destructive phenomenon. Depending on the law it denies, legal nihilism can be internal and international.

Internal legal nihilism

Russian Empire, Soviet Union and its successors

Andrzej Walicki Andrzej Stanisław Walicki (15 May 1930 – 20 August 2020) was a Polish historian. He was a professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United States. He specialized in philosophy of sociopolitics, history of Polish and Russian philosop ...

thought that both bureaucracy of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

and socialists that replaced them had the similar negative attitude toward law because of the Slavic character of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It is believed by many scholars and public figures that legal nihilism is still widely spread in some countries of former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

including Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Russian president

Medvedev Medvedev (russian: Медве́дев) and female Medvedeva (Медве́дева), from Russian ''medved’'' (медве́дь), meaning the animal "bear", are Slavic surnames. Notable bearers of the name include: Medvedev (male form): *Alexander ...

often spoke against legal nihilism identifying increasing of the strength of law and legal awareness of the people. A pressure of the international public opinion has substantial influence on the struggle against internal legal nihilism in Russia.

International legal nihilism

International legal nihilism is denial of international law. It can be a consequence of dualist theory that international and national law are independent autonomous systems. Serbian expert in international law

Smilja Avramov Smilja Avramov ( sr-Cyrl, Смиља Аврамов; 15 February 1918 – 2 October 2018) was a Serbian academician, legal scholar, social activist and educator in international law. She was a member of the Senate of Republika Srpska from 199 ...

publicly opposed the practice of

Humanitarian intervention Humanitarian intervention is the use or threat of military force by a state (or states) across borders with the intent of ending severe and widespread human rights violations in a state which has not given permission for the use of force. Humani ...

ism, emphasizing that the main danger for the modern world is not nationalism nor communism but legal nihilism which she thinks was employed during the

breakup of Yugoslavia The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

NATO and USA

Jan Nederveen Pieterse Jan Nederveen Pieterse is a Dutch-born scholar whose work centers on global political economy, development studies and cultural studies. He currently serves as the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Distinguished Professor of Global Studies and Sociolo ...

believes that the United States is in the position of new universal Empire which succeeds

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

and

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

, but unlike them, the United States maintains "Pax" not on the basis of the rule of law, but on the rule of power. He also emphasized that breaches of the international law placed United States in the position of "international legal nihilism" and that USA does not recognize other polities as legitimate equals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legal nihilism Nihilism Philosophy of law