Legal regulation and impact: Hard and soft forces in commemoration of Sergei S. Alexeev’s Centenary

The article characterizes and schematizes the central legal category of the “mechanism of legal regulation” (MLR), as originally formulated by S.S. Alekseev in 1966. Despite its established presence in legal science, the MPR continues to be interpreted in diverse ways. The author argues that this stems from a confusion between the concepts of “legal regulation” and “legal influence”, which are not equivalent. Legal regulation aims to streamline social relations, whereas legal influence aims to orient individuals within the legal space. Legal influence is a relatively new category in legal science, representing an additional, though insignificant, impact of law on people’s consciousness, even without strict behavioral regulation. Legal influence comprises six components: informational, psychological, value-based, ideological, political, and international. The author concludes that while legal regulation is a “hard power”, actively managing and influencing society, legal influence is a form of law’s “soft power”. Together, these two forces ensure order in society.