Lorenz von Stein on the system and structure of social legislation

Abstract

One of the urgent tasks of modern legal science is the formation of a scientific concept of social legislation as a large normative body, covering in its regulation relations that concern ensuring accessibility for all and guaranteed receipt by certain groups of citizens on a preferential or free basis of basic benefits (education, healthcare, housing, social insurance and security, etc.). Going beyond the boundaries of labour law and social security law, social legislation is based on the recognition of not only traditional branches of law, to which branches of legislation correspond, but also complex areas (branches) of legislation that do not coincide with branches of law. Turning to the legacy of Lorenz von Stein allows us to take a fresh look at the history of legal regulation of such important areas of society as industry, agriculture, trade and public catering, housing and utilities, education, science, culture, healthcare, etc. A return to ideas, laid down as the basis for the formation of the social state and its legal system in the second half of the 19th century, provides additional arguments for building an optimal sectoral structure of the law of modern states, in which techniques and methods corresponding to their specifics are used to regulate different complexes of social relations.