SOCIAL REALITY THAT DEFIES THE APPLICATION OF LEGAL NORMS

Abstract

The entire process of law creation can be divided into three levels: the specific moment when law arises, the moment when it is interpreted, and finally, the moment when it is applied. It is precisely this process of law creation that is defined as a complex procedure by which social relations acquire legal form. It transforms a form of non-legal reality, factual social events and relations, into an action and phenomenon regulated by law. It is clear that this comprehensive concept of law is reduced to its lowest instance - the legal norm, which as such is the only one that can sufficiently penetrate society and social reality. The basic characteristic of legal norms is applicability, that is, arbitrary or forced human behavior according to them. Without this feature, a legal norm would not find a place in social reality, which means that it is precisely this "applicability" that constitutes the link between the normative and the factual. Equivalently to the elements of the legal order, where without the value element it would not make sense, the impossibility of applying a legal norm renders it meaningless. When we say "applicability", we mean that a specific legal norm has the "ability to act" when it can be applied, and that, conversely, it "does not have the ability to act" when it cannot or must not be applied. In the paper, the author sought to explain the value element of law as its key, to point out the concept and types of application of a legal norm, and to show, using practical examples, to what extent social reality defies its application.