The essay addresses the problem of normativity of law from the point of view of phenomenological hermeneutics. First, the author briefly reconstructs the theory of hermeneutic experience as an experience of understanding or an experience of meaning, highlights the inherent normative dimension in the structure of hermeneutic experience and describes its aspects. Then, the essay traces the connection between this initial normativity and the formalized normative systems that largely mediate our lives in the modern world. In particular, using the concept of human dignity as an example, the author shows that hermeneutic optics enables us to see the foundations of legal norms in the very mode of our being in the world. Finally, the essay explains the modern crisis of law as an integral part of the general crisis of meaning, which is associated with the destruction of public realm and a radical transformation of our fundamental experience.
