ON SOME PROTOTYPES OF LAW IN THE WORLD OF GREAT APES
BORIS SHALYUTIN
Institute for the Development of Education and Social Technologies,
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Kurgan, Russian Federation
The aim of the article is to systematize and analyze the achievements of the
primatological revolution from the point of view of the problem of the of genesis of law .
The objectives of the article are to present the most significant from the point
of view of
the origin of law achievements of the primatological revolution that took place in the last half
century, to identify the prototypes and prerequisites of legal regulation of behavior in the
communities of apes closest to humans - chimpanzees and bonobos, and to compare them with
legal regulation in human societies.
The main conclusions of the article are that the mutual
behavior of the great apes
contains a significant set of manifestations that should be considered as prototypes of law
(conflict resolution, the existence of norms, including coercive, involving punishment for their
violation, recognition of property, a system of equivalent exchanges of objects and services, the
―law of talion‖, the principle of justice), but the totality of these prototypes is not possessed of a
number of essential
characteristics, without which it cannot be recognized as a law.
Keywords: primatological revolution, chimpanzees, bonobos, Frans de Waal, genesis
of law, politics, empathy, morality, law.
