Legal thinking as the basis for future law specialists' formation

Introduction. The paper focuses on the establishment of individual elements of law education in Russia and abroad, determination of qualitative elements of the students' acquiring legal knowledge and their system consolidation. The aim is to reveal the grounds and prospects of developing legal thinking in law students. Materials and Methods. The research employs the results of the sociological survey conducted with three hundred students of the Law Institute of Krasnoyarsk State Agrarian University. The author considered the data obtained from the questioning related to law students' acquisition of professional knowledge and formation of legal thinking. Results and Discussion. The emphasis is put on legal thinking as a generalized characteristics of the research activity focusing on critical assessment and professional comprehension of legal reality. It will be impossible to effectively perform professional activity and achieve the appropriate legal outcome without high level of legal thinking of law specialists. Conclusions. During the formation of a personality of a future lawyer the focus is made on his legal culture, social responsibility and civil activity.