LEGAL EXPERIMENT AS CIVIL SCIENCE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH METHOD

Introduction: experimentation is a widely used method of cognition in all scientific spheres, especially in natural branches of human knowledge. Jurisprudence uses the concept of legal experiment which most often understood as a law-making experiment consisting of creation of an experimental legal norm and introducing it on some territory or in some sphere of public relations. However, the phenomenon of legal experiment should also cover a research experiment as a special juridical method of cognition. Purpose: to characterize the possibilities of using the method of legal experiment in civil law research. Methods: a dialectical approach being the leading one forms the methodological basis of the work, complimented by the general scientific methods of cognition as well as the legal-dogmatic method and the hermeneutical method of legal studies. Results: the distinction was made between law-making and legal research experiments, the scope and limits of application of each of them were demonstrated; the necessity was explained of differentiation between the legal experiment method and the real results obtained upon exercising it; the necessity was proved of differentiating between imaginary and real-life experiments, this allowing to qualify only real-life experiment as a scientific research experiment constituting a special method of legal cognition. The main goals of the experiment in civil scientific works are testing the hypothesis and creating effective legal implementation practices.