Inna Alexeyevna Proshina, Prosecution Service for the Moscow Region, e-mail: prochina@mail.ru.
Abstract. Historically, the principles of law have been the debating point of the home legal studies. In this article, the author performed the retrospective research of reference works on the principles of law starting from the latter half of the 19th century and up to the present day. The author intentionally confined her research with the scholars representing legal positivism. The effect of Marxist-Leninist ideology can also be observed as the essential factor of the Soviet science of law. The author elucidated in the works reviewed the trend of dominant perception of the principles of law as the fundamental ideas reflected in the legislation. It is concluded in the article that establishing all the principles in the statute will not add to definiteness just as of the principles of law, so of the legislation in general. On the contrary, the indefiniteness and declarative nature of the statutory legal acts will grow. It is suggested that the principles of law should be developed on the doctrinal basis of the other non-positivist kinds of legal perception.
Keywords: idea of law, principles of law, theories of legal perception, legal positivism, sociological approach, legal regulations, general theory of law, definiteness of law, indefiniteness of law, kinds of legal perception, fundamental principles, ideas of law, legal ideology.