The Protection of Morality as a Constitutional Duty of the State
The relevance of this topic is due to the new semantic interpretation of the text of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and its individual provisions. The term «protection of morality» contained in one of them continues to remain vague and poorly researched, which creates a number of difficulties in the theory and practice of constitutional law, dictates the need for its scientific research, understanding and interpretation. The problem statement: the functioning of the state and the law of Russia, determined by the dominant role of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, has created the need to find new ways to improve the state-legal reality, including by concretizing existing and identifying new constitutional obligations of the state. The aim of the research is substantiate the meaning and reveal the content of the protection of morality as a constitutional duty of the state. The research methods: analysis, synthesis, generalization, abstraction, system, structural-functional, formal-legal. The results and key conclusions: the dialectical contradiction of rights and duties is one of the sources of the movement of social relations. Responsibilities contain transformative potential, so their identification contributes to the development of state-legal reality. In a constitutional State, the main source of duties is the constitution (the basic law). The norms and requirements contained in it are addressed, first of all, to the state as a specially organized instrument of the people’s will, designed to translate constitutional ideas into reality. The norms and requirements of the сonstitution are provided with an unconditional state guarantee, so the content of the constitutional regulations should be considered from the position of the constitutional duties of the state. The teleological aspect of Part 3 of Article 55 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation allows us to recognize the protection of morality as one of such duties. It is expressed in the demand of the people, mediated by the Constitution, imposed on the State to protect the values, norms and rules of behavior that determine the identity and ensure the identity of the people of the Russian Federation. The constitutional duty of the State to protect morals is generic in relation to other duties and is implemented by all State bodies and officials within their competence. The definition of the role of state bodies and officials in fulfilling the constitutional duty of the state to protect morals, as well as the identification of specialized subjects of its implementation, will allow not only to see and pave new ways to improve the state-legal reality, but also to understand the constitutional significance of the activities of these subjects