Legal error as a concept of general theoretical jurisprudence

Abstract

Introduction. After presenting error as a social phenomenon, the article focuses on legal error, which is understood as a legally significant action (or inaction) in a state of good faith delusion, the result of which does not correspond to its purpose(s), can or should be corrected, and does not or does not entail legal liability. The author formulates the concept of a legal error, identifies its main features, and also creates a classification of its main types (by legal qualification). The purpose of the article is primarily to characterize legal error from the perspective of general theoretical jurisprudence, to define it as a generic legal concept with justification of its terminological form and internal logic.

Summary of the main research results. "Mistake" is a well-established social phenomenon. One of its types is a legal error. According to its main features (objective and subjective), it is a legally significant (lawful, unlawful) behavior in the form of action or inaction; it is behavior in a state of good faith delusion; it is behavior whose result does not correspond to its purpose(s); its negative (undesirable) result can or should be corrected; it is behavior that does not or does not entail legal liability. The distinction between the types of legal error ("by legal qualification") indicates that it is: lawful behavior (permissible); objectively unlawful act ("innocent act"); error ("positive", "negative" by consequences) in the unlawfulness of an act; error as a purposeful result of an offense (deception).

Conclusions. According to the legal qualification, a legal error is a dualistic phenomenon, it is a lawful or unlawful action (inaction). The unconsciousness of an error in thinking is traditionally reflected in the term "bona fide delusion" (awareness of an error means the absence of a "state of delusion"). According to the source of the delusion, it is necessary to distinguish between action (inaction) in a state of delusion as a result of a mistake and action (inaction) in a state of delusion as a result of deception. The teleological inadequacy ("target irrelevance") of the result of behavior is an external expression of the error of a specific targeted action (inaction) of a person as a subject of goal setting. A legal error as an objectively unlawful act (an innocent act which makes intent as a form of guilt impossible) is a law implementation error which draws attention to the need to distinguish between an "honest mistake" and an "intentional mistake" (having the features of "deception", "falsification") as opposite phenomena. The classification of types of legal error is not limited to its understanding as an objectively unlawful act, to its typology by types of legal activity. This classification generally applies to both lawful and unlawful behavior of legal entities.