Revisiting the concept and principles of a legal state

Scope of the work. The article author notes that the content of a legal state is assessed ambiguously in the theory of law. In the scientific standpoints of legal theorists there are contradictions in the definition of essential features, the formulation of the concept, in the allocation of any given principles, which are the scientific framework of the legal state, according the article author. The analysis of the content of the author's concepts “a legal state” allowed us to propose our own formulation of this legal phenomenon. There are questioned attempts of some scientists to identify the terms “principles of a legal state” and “features of a legal state”, or to distinguish in the content such a state only its features or principles. According to the article author, the principles are fundamental, conceptual foundations of the subject of research, and the features are its characteristic features, properties, specificities. This approach has conditioned to the article author both allocation of principles of the legal state, and disclosure of their contents by means of specific features for each principle. At the same time, the contributor introduces a new legal term “principle-sign of a legal state” into scientific circulation, the content of which is less significant than the content of the principle, but, simultaneously it is among all the other features of this principle is essential, priority.