Justice as a Basis for Evaluating and Improving Law as an Element of Legal Awareness

The authors analyze the law as an element of legal consciousness and conclude that legal consciousness is the reaction of society to the law, its justice, and its legality. Structurally, legal consciousness consists of rational and irrational elements. The rational elements include legal education and legal ideology. Science plays an important role in legal ideology. Legal principles (ideas formed based on fundamental legal experience) are a component of legal ideology. Legal principles perform a system-forming role. They serve as a program for the evolution of modern law and act as the foundation of any branch of law. According to the authors, in the conditions of transformation of law and social reality, the idea of justice should occupy a central place. Justice is a category in the legal system that seeks to ensure equal treatment of equals and guarantee respect for the rights and freedoms of each individual. In the research, the authors analyze the formulation of the principle of justice in constitutional, criminal, administrative, civil, civil procedural, arbitration, administrative, and procedural law. The authors substantiate that justice is an important principle mentioned in various normative acts of legal branches in the Russian Federation. According to the authors, justice requires consideration in improving legislation and law enforcement. On the example of analyzing the norms of law aimed at countering digital property crime, the authors propose improving legislation through the prism of the principle of justice. Additionally, the comparison of sanctions for terrorist acts and murder reveals the disproportionality of the offense and punishment, which contradicts the idea of justice. At the end of this philosophical-legal research, the authors conclude that it is necessary to further improve the legislation in the context of justice.