Gnatovsky M. Formation of the European Legal Area and Trends of its Development.

The thesis is devoted to studying the processes of formation and development of the European legal area. Primary attention is paid to the role of major centres of European legal cooperation in its creation. The use of the concept of the European legal area is analysed on the basis of the researches of Ukrainian and foreign scholars, official documents of the OSCE, Council of Europe and EU.The institutional structure of the European legal area is defined; its relation to the processes of deepening and widening the regional integration is established. The author suggests the approaches to the formulation of Ukraine's legal policy related to its striving to fully participate in European integration structures.