The article provides an overview of the main provisions of the formalistsand realists schools on law applying and, in particular, on the elaboration of decision inthe case.It was concluded: Western legal thought uses the syllogistic model (legal norm asthe major premise, the factual circumstances of the case — the minor premise, anddecision — conclusion) to explain the process of legal reasoning. Domestic legaldoctrine describes the outer side of law applying by a syllogism, as a set of theprocedural actions, forming the corresponding stage. It is proposed to consider thesyllogistic model as a model of legal reasoning of law-applying decision.