Methodology of legal acts study: concepts and its structure

Ihor SERDIUK

SERDIUK I. (2022), Methodology of legal acts study: concepts and its structure, Scientific Bulletin of Dnipropetrovsk State University of Internal Affairs, №4, 110-123

DOI: 10.31733/2078-3566-2022-4-110-123

 

ABSTRACT. On the basis of the analysis of scientists’ views of existing in current legal science on the meaning of the concept of methodology of law (legal science) and its structure, the author’s definition of the category methodology of legal acts study has been substantiated, and its internal structure has been also determined.

The methodology of legal acts study is a set of theories (paradigms), epistemological principles, approaches and methods recognized by the academic community at the current stage of the development of legal sciences and determined by the subject of cognition, which provide the possibility of solving certain research tasks, as well as obtaining reliable and objective knowledge about manifestation of the will of legally competent entities.

The paradigm of legal acts study consists of the provisions of the theories of legal activity, lawformation and law-making, sources of law, legal implementation and enforcement, interpretation of legal rules, legal documents, legal behavior, legal facts, legal means, as well as legal regulation, recognized by the academic community.

In the course of conducting a scientific study of legal acts, the author must be guided by the following indisputable requirements:

1) universal epistemological principles: a) comprehensiveness and completeness, which ensures the study of the phenomenon of legal acts not only in their interrelationship and interaction with other related phenomena of legal reality, but also in all aspects that form a general vision of the studied phenomena; b) historicism, which involves considering them not only in the modern dimension, but also from the point of view of their past and foreseeable future; c) complexity, which allows considering legal acts not only statically, but also dynamically – from the point of view of their action, functioning in the mechanism of legal regulation of social relations, in the national legal system; d) legal polycentrism, which requires the study of the phenomenon of legal acts taking into account the peculiarities inherent in the Romano-Germanic legal family and the values on which European civilization is based;

2) epistemological principles of law, which a) reflect the dialectical relationship between the process of cognition and law; b) indicate the ontological aspect of its existence (cognition is one of the forms of existence of law); c) testify to the epistemological nature of all types of legal process as a form of legal activity of actors of cognition of law, and above all, law-making actors; d) indicate the need for a continuous process of identifying and understanding the laws of social development and translating them into the language of legal principles and rules; e) reflect the dialectical relationship between the essence of law and its cognitive function as a manifestation of such a function; f) testify not only to the existence of a conflict between what social relations should be and what they are in reality, but also to the relative permanence of this conflict, which can be exacerbated from time to time and eliminated through the adoption of a new normative legal act; g) they emphasize humanistic principles of law, the idea of human-centeredness; h) reflect the dialectical relationship between the process of cognition and the truth as its result, which also has a moral and ethical assessment; i) indicate the presence of two cognitive-legal paradigms of thinking and implementation of law.

Keywords: methodology, methodology of law, methodology of legal acts study, structure of methodology of law, legal outlook, type of legal thinking, scientific paradigm, epistemological principles, principles of cognition of law.

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