Legal infantilism as a phenomenon of modern legal reality

Introduction. Legal infantilism being one of the varieties of legal conscience deformation is characterised by insufficient legal knowledge and the lack of well-defined legal attitudes. It has been widely spread throughout the world in the XXI century and can be defined as a social pandemic. Despite the fact that legal infantilism, along with legal nihilism and legal idealism is more frequently described in Russian scientific and educational publications and has become a matter of concern in court proceedings, so far this socio-legal phenomenon has not received proper attention in legal science. Methods. The methodology of the research of legal infantilism as a phenomenon of modern legal reality is based on dialectics. The main methods of the research were the principle of comprehensive study of legal processes and phenomena, the principles of unity of theory and practice, consciousness and activity, the principle of determinism. The research was carried out on the basis of system and value approaches. Methods of integrity and retrospective analysis made it possible to determine the development of the research topic, to identify the ideas of various scientific areas concerning the determinants of the formation of legal infantilism, its characteristics and manifestations in modern Russia during the historiographical analysis. The sociological method was an important one, it enabled to characterise the subjects - bearers of legal infantilism. General scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalisation, abstraction, historical) and special (historical-legal, interpretation of normative legal acts) methods were used. Results. Legal infantilism is examined as the manifestation of legal conscience deformation being a type of social infantilism. The paper defines the prerequisites for the development of legal infantilism, its distinctive features. It gives examples of manifestation in everyday, professional and scientific activities; and reveals the peculiarities of legal infantilism of the youth as a special social group. The study reveals the need for a comprehensive scientific analysis of legal infantilism as a phenomenon of modern legal reality, as the result of a gap or insufficient systematic assimilation of legal norms and legal values by an individual and a social group. It is proved that legal infantilism is a threat to the progressive development of the state and society, in this regard, in the context of determining the ways to improve the state-legal system of modern Russia, legal infantilism should be considered as a public danger.