The dissertation presents the concept of the institutional foundations of legal order, based on the idea of a legal order as a specific form of a public organization claiming credibility among normative systems. The legal order is formed at the intersection of the is and the ought, and because of this quality, it is formed not as a result of the activity of the state or another potential public authority, but arises as a spontaneous form of legal practice, communication between people. Proceeding from this, the key issue of the institutional principles of the legal order is to distinguish the «apparent» institutional framework of legal order, represented primarily by the legal order infrastructure, and the «invisible» communicative institutional basis of legal order, which cannot be monopolized and which is formed exclusively in the process of interaction of the subjects.
In the first section of the dissertation questions of a methodological nature are considered. First of all, the characteristic of the institutional view of the legal order is given through the prism of the four most influential traditions of understanding the legal order: analytical, normative, jusnaturalistic, and Soviet (post-Soviet). The systematization of the existing views of the institutional principles of the legal order allows to emphasize the significance of the institutional methodology for understanding the legal order. It is shown that most variants of understanding of the social institute applied in sociology, political science, economic theory, etc., can be extrapolated to legal order. This allows us to outline the existence of three main directions of institutionalization of legal order – social, legal and legitimate.
The second section of the dissertation focuses on theoretical problems of the process of institutionalization of the legal order through its structuring, the acquisition of authority and legitimacy and the emergence of dualism of official and informal legal order.
The complex analysis of the legal infrastructure is carried out. The proposed legal infrastructure is understood as an auxiliary organizational system that arises as a result of the institutionalization of the legal order in order to simplify and optimize the implementation of its functions. It is shown that the legal order forms its infrastructure in the vertical and horizontal plane. Features of the vertical infrastructure of the legal order are as follows: first, it is formed as a result of the need for formalization and rationalization of power relations subordination; secondly, it is subject to regulatory formalization through the implementation of the principles and ideas of separation of powers; Thirdly, the vertical legal infrastructure is not self-limiting and spontaneous, and therefore requires its balancing through the institutionalization of horizontal infrastructure. Properties of horizontal infrastructure of legal order are: first, it appears as a result of direct legal communication of subjects of law and serves as a tool to facilitate ways and ways to achieve their goals and follow the grounds for action; secondly, the horizontal infrastructure of legal order is formed independently of the state or other centralized legal order; thirdly, the horizontal infrastructure of the legal order is spontaneous and decentralized, and therefore it is always a manifestation of legal activity and the realization of individual freedom by the subjects of law.
