SCIENCE AS A LEGAL CATEGORY: COMPARATIVE LEGAL RESEARCH

The article is an attempt to undertake a comprehensive comparative analysis of a word «science» as a legal term utilized by sources and norms of various legal systems. The first part deals with law definitions of «science» and legal terms relating to it («scientific activity», «scientific research») as they are established in international law (in UNESCO) and applied in national legislation including those of Russia. The author concludes that the term «science» is used in modern law in two meaning, i.e. the activity aiming at the creation of new knowledge («science-cognition») as well as its results («science-knowledge»). The second part deals with legal classification of science and scientific research which is conducted according to two principal (purposes and subject-matter of research) and supplementary criteria (financing, importance for State and society etc.). Author concludes on the absence in the modern law of uniform approaches to the classification of scientific research. Moreover, this situation characterizes both inter-state context (different approaches in different countries) and intra-state context (different approaches in various legal sources of the same country). The article also demonstrates weaknesses in the definition of science in Russia notably the absence of general federal law definition while several members of Russian Federation have established their own definitions of science.

law definitions, science, scientific activity, basic research, applied research, branches of science, fields of scientific specialization, UN, UNESCO, OECD, EU