Humanities & Social Sciences 8 (2015 8) 1652-1660 ~ ~ ~ УДК 340.115:347.41 Legal Life: Conceptual, Categorical and Methodological Analysis Experience Alexander V. Mal’ko*a b and Vasily V. Trofi movb a Saratov Branch of the Institute of State and Law of RAS 135 Chernyshevsky Str., Saratov, 410028, Russia Tambov State University named after G.R. Derzhavin 33 International Str., Tambov, 392000, Russia Received 14.02.2015, received in revised form 09.04.2015, accepted 21.05.2015 The present article describes the experience of conceptual, categorical, and methodological analysis of the legal life phenomenon. <...> It assesses the critical sides and advantages, refl ecting the process of introducing the “legal life” category into legal theory structure. <...> It substantiates the theoretical and methodological potential of the “legal life” category and considers the problem of development of separate methodological approaches to legal life development. <...> Keywords: legal life of the society, legal theory, categories of legal science, scientifi c discussion, law, complexity phenomenon, methodology, synergetic approach, cultural-historical approach. <...> Complex processes and challenges typical for the development of contemporary society require adequate scientifi c efforts for the registration and analysis of the forming patterns and tendencies. <...> In this regard, one of the tasks of scientifi c search is the creation of the categories that would refl ect such processes and challenges to the full, being able to explain the new appearing social realities, suggest solutions for the new economic, political, moral and other problems. <...> Legal science is not an exception, suffering from signifi cant defi cit in the fi eld of the most general concepts, justifi ed from the methodological point of view (assuming a © Siberian Federal University. <...> All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: igp@sgap.ru # 1652 # certain philosophical, scientifi c conceptuality), that could be used for comprehensive research of the complex, contradictory and multifaceted processes observed in the legal development of various countries. <...> Among such concepts going through the the 21st , process of formation at the turn of century, we may outline the category of legal life1 which can be interpreted as a form of social life, manifesting itself predominantly in legal acts and legal relations characterizing the specifi city <...>