3 LEGAL TRANSFORMATIONS AND THEORETICAL INSIGHTS ARTICLE THE DISPUTE BETWEEN BORIS CHICHERIN AND VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV ON THE NATURE OF LAW AND MODERN CONSTITUTIONALISM Vladimir Kochetkov (Russia) Author Associate Professor, International Slavic Institute (Moscow) Email: vovov69@mail.ru Abstract The content of the legislation and enforcement in the modern state depends on how we understand the nature of law. <...> The former was a classic liberal who had connected the essence of law solely with the value of freedom, yet the latter was of an opinion that law was the bare minimum of justice. <...> In this regard, it is important to understand differences between moral norms and the law according to Chicherin. <...> He believed that legal norms defined the outer bounds of freedom, while the moral norms defined the internal requirements of moral duty. <...> In principle, Solovyov was agree, that the idea of freedom and rights generated by commodity-money relations was related to the sphere of private law. <...> But extreme poverty and other adverse social circumstances can easily create insurmountable obstacles to realization of human capabilities. <...> Therefore, these obstacles should be eliminated by ensuring that each person needs not only formal freedom, but also the necessary assistance with its implementation. <...> In order to exclude that Volume 1 April 2016 Issue 1(5) www.kulawr.ru 4 KUTAFIN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW opposition of freedom and justice the author offers an axiological understanding constitutionalism as a theoretical form of legal consciousness that connects these values into a creative synthesis. <...> Keywords Constitutionalism, Boris Chicherin, Vladimir Solovyov, legal consciousness, constitutional law, legal classics DOI: 10.17803/2313-5395.2016.1.5.003-022 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction .4 II. <...> Modern constitutionalism on freedom and justice .14 V. Conclusion .20 Bibliography .20 I. INTRODUCTION By the time the constitutional question1 was first arisen in Russia in the 70s of the 19th century, in the West there had already been formed three strong traditions of constitutionalism as a certain form of legal consciousness. <...> According to the first tradition, which can be conventionally called as the Anglo-Saxon one, the priority of government was to protect the rights and freedoms, that the only basis of power is founding social contract based on recognition of the equal dignity of all human beings. <...> Axial principle <...>