Legal Protection and Legal Defense: Approaches to the Study of Concepts

Abstract

The paper considers a controversial issue of the relationship between the concepts and legal phenomena “legal protection” and “legal defense”. The author puts forward and substantiates a hypothesis on the differentiation of the concepts of “legal protection” and “legal defense” based on teleological purposes. Moreover, the author draws attention to the chronological differences in the impact of legal protection and legal defense. The methodology of scientific research includes the dialectical method, as well as general scientific logical operations (deduction and induction, analysis and synthesis) and special scientific methods (formal legal and comparative legal methods). The author studies various epistemological approaches to differentiate concepts and phenomena (study of structure, study of functional purpose, study of instrumental purpose), by the construction of conceptual series. As a result of the research, the author confirms this hypothesis, taking into account the basis of the developed conceptual series.