Dubov G. Evolution of Legal Studies Methodology: Specific Features of the Soviet and Contemporary Stages.

The dissertation is devoted to the theoretical study of the evolution of legal research methodology in the Soviet and contemporary phases of Ukrainian legal science. It identifies specific features of the evolution of methodological studies subject, in relation to studies conducted by Soviet and modern scholars, and divides studies into periods. The author argues that the basic level of methodological analysis in the contemporary phase of scholarship is not separate cognitive instruments and methods, but rather foundations of science, the determination of which supposes the analysis of scientific knowledge as a constantly evolving integrated system. The author identifies four periods of evolution in Soviet legal studies methodology, which are characterized by the specific features of interrelation between the subject of methodological studies and the foundations of legal science. The author suggests that formation of legal methodology as a separate field of legal science occurred in the 1960s. Before methodology became separate within domestic jurisprudence at the Soviet stage of development is characterized by the formation and further implementation of the new foundations of legal science.