TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORMS (SOURCES) OF LAW: A HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL APPROACH

Abstract

This article examines the understanding of legal forms (sources) in legal literature and existing scientific approaches in this �ield, as well as the evolution of legal forms and the factors influencing their development, from a scientific perspective. The study analyzes the features of the formation and types of legal forms, including the essence and content of legal forms such as legal custom, judicial precedent, normative legal act, normative contract, legal doctrine, principles of law, and other forms of law. The study employed historical-legal, comparative-legal, systemic, and formal-legal methods of scientific cognition. Based on comparative analysis, the features of the functioning of legal forms in the Roman-German and Anglo-Saxon legal families have been identified. It has been established that in the states of the Romano-Germanic legal family, written legislation holds a dominant position among the sources of law, while in the Anglo-Saxon legal family, judicial precedents play an important role. At the same time, in the Romano-Germanic legal family, courts predominantly act as law enforcers, while in the Anglo-Saxon legal family, they also perform a rule-making function. Based on the research results, it is substantiated that the forms (sources) of law are not static, but dynamically developing legal phenomena that transform under the influence of social, economic, and technological factors. It has been revealed that in national legal science, specific types of legal sources, specifically legal doctrine, legal principles, and religious texts as sources of law, have not been sufficiently researched. It has been established that the processes of globalization, digitalization, and the development of artificial intelligence have a significant impact on the evolution of legal forms and can contribute to strengthening the significance of judicial precedent in the national legal system. It was concluded that it is necessary to further study the development trends of legal forms and improve their theoretical and legal foundations.