MORAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE BASIC CATEGORIES OF CONTRACT LAW: SOME REFLECTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EMERGENCE “THE NEW PRIVATE LAW THEORY”

Introduction. The article notes that in the context of the crisis phenomena occurring in the plane of national legal spaces, the problem of jurisdictional design of ‘access points' as loci of sustainable development of human civilization is of paramount importance. The author believes that maintaining sustainable growth in ‘access points' is possible if the basic model of commodification of goods is preserved. The author argues that under these conditions, the definition of moral boundaries in the process of commodification of goods is one of the main methodological issues that needs to be resolved in the process of formation of the ‘New Private Law Theory'. The author is convinced that the process of commodification is, in principle, effective within the framework of taking into account the moral foundations of the relevant legal constructions. Purpose. In this regard, the author refers to the origins of contract law, which developed in the Western legal tradition, and demonstrates that from the very beginning, despite the instrumentalist methodology aimed at justifying any imperatives — from utilitarianism to the ‘will of the ruling class' — the fundamental categories of contract law are, in fact, based on moral considerations. The author supports his assumption with the conclusions drawn in the course of a brief analysis of (1) the grounds of contractual legal relations, (2) determination of the legal meaning of such grounds, and (3) correspondence between the grounds of contractual legal relations and the utilitarian result expected by their parties. Materials and methods. The article is based on the analysis of a series of works dedicated to the New Private Law of Theory and in relation to the problems solved by the said scientific program (in particular, critical positions regarding methodological approaches to private law). When analyzing the materials, we used the method of legal constructivism as a meta-theory. The above metatheory presupposes, according to the author, consideration of legal phenomena and processes at three levels — at the level of social consciousness (in the form of structures of consciousness), at the level of reification of law (in the form of art objects) and at the level of subjective reality (reflections of participants in legal communication). The moral foundations of the relevant legal constructions of contract law are analyzed using the inter-temporal and inter-local comparative legal research.