Methodological Approaches in the Structure of the Methodology of Law Reform Research
Abstract
Abstract. The article summarizes, expands and substantiates scientific knowledge about the place, role and epistemological potential of methodological approaches in the system of methodological tools for studying law reform. Modern views on the content, structure, features and possibilities of the methodology of science, the methodology of jurisprudence, and the methodology of legal knowledge are discussed. It has been found that the methodology of legal research and scientists’ ideas about its potential were formed historically, under the influence of the achievements of philosophy and science about the method as a way of knowing and understanding the phenomena of the objective world. The methodology of modern jurisprudence is a complex socio-cultural phenomenon, which clearly reflects the specifics of the epistemological discourse of law life, its components and levels. It is proposed that the methodology of law reform research should be understood as a conceptual presentation of the idea, goal, vector, content and components of the methodological toolkit, which ensures obtaining the most adequate, objective and systematized information about the essential properties of law reform. It is proven that the epistemological arsenal necessary for a comprehensive study of the nature of law reform has a different nature and is a multi-level, mosaic and integrative system of adapted methodological knowledge. To ensure the reliability and validity of the results of studying the essence of law reform, worldview, philosophical, scientific, sociological and theoretical foundations are distinguished; principles of scientific knowledge; methodological (conceptual, scientific) approaches; general methods of thinking, philosophical, general scientific, specific scientific (private scientific) methods. Key methodological approaches to the study of law reform include axiological, anthropological, hermeneutic, activity-based, comparative, systemic, phenomenological, and others. It is emphasized that it is necessary to distinguish the methodological (conceptual, scientific) approach to the study of law reform as a component of the methodology of its understanding from the research (scientific) approach to understanding law reform as a component of the theory of law reform. This approach to describing the architecture of the methodology for the scientific study of law reform does not deny the relevance, possibility and necessity of other variants of its structure, but on the contrary, it provides for their enrichment and complementarity, integrity of perception, since the construction of various classifications or the isolation of distinctive components of the methodology of a specific scientific investigation is not an end in itself, but is conditioned by the need to establish relationships between its components, levels, which is necessary for the correct choice of the arsenal of methodological tools (principles, approaches, methods) of general theoretical research in accordance with the internal regularity of law reform and the peculiarities of scientific knowledge on this issue
Keywords: methodology; methodology of jurisprudence; methodological approach; reform; social reform; law reform; theory of law reform.
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