The problem of legal consciousness as a source of law in the conditions of the formation of a law-based state and civil society

The study examines the importance of legal consciousness as a source of law in the conditions of the formation of a law-based state and civil society. The author relies on a broad interpretation of the category "source of law", appealing to the established in domestic legal science approach to this definition. It is noted that the discussion about the nature and content of sources of law in domestic jurisprudence is inevitably extrapolated from its key issue related to the search and substantiation of the type of legal thinking as a paradigm of scientific thinking. Based on the analysis of this relationship, identified by the author, a conclusion is drawn about the relevance and compliance with the modern conditions of the legal space development of the integrative type of legal thinking. Its epistemological and ontological attitudes, firstly, suggest the very possibility of legal consciousness, realizing as a source and a factor of law-making, and secondly, focus on the study of law as a complex sociocultural phenomenon, which essential properties and external forms of expression are entirely mediated by legal consciousness.