Liberalism and Modern Law of Information Age

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the relevant issues of modern legal regulation of the social relations in the light of correlation of main ideas of liberalism and modern sociocultural realia. Liberalism as a concept is not unambiguous in its content, and therefore the use of this concept in each case depends on the context. It is proved that within several centuries the mankind has been establishing its legal life in the framework of liberal and legal doctrine. Liberalism determines freedom, equality, democracy and human rights as the major law-making values. It is traced how the ideas of classical liberalism (system of basic, interconnected principles of personal freedoms, inalienability of the natural rights, limited control, private ownership, distribution of power, rule of law, etc.) are reconsidered under the impact of the objective social factors and through the transformation are adjusted to the new conditions and are overhauled in the modern discourse. Modern period is characterized by the inconsistency between the fundamental provisions of liberalism, its values, and social life realia. Such inconsistency is determined by the specificity of information society, which is evident in the fact that the legal and juristic institutes of guaranteeing, insurance and protection of the mentioned values are not adjusted enough to the new realia. It is shown that the central dichotomy for modern European legal philosophy is the relationship between freedom as a liberal value and the phenomenon of total control over man, and because human rights are necessary to protect individual freedom in classical liberalism, while modern liberalism stands for guarantees and freedoms of individuals. The author underlines that in contrast to the doctrines of communism and fascism, liberalism preserves its vital force due to this flexibility, ability to adjust to the new social conditions which is testified to by various modifications of liberalism (classical, non-classical, neoliberalism). The article also addresses the issue of the «new human rights» in the information age and its correlation with the major liberal values of freedom and equality. The author also emphasizes the updating of the classical legal institutes in the 20th-21st centuries, i.e., the e-democracy phenomenon.