The article aims at investigating the historical development of scientific ideas of legal facts in the private law doctrine. The authors particularly focus on the approaches used to define the concept of “legal fact” in the institutions of Gaius, the Civil Code of Eastern Galicia of 1797, the Austrian Civil Code of 1811, the Civil Code of France of 1804, the German Civil Code of 1899. The authors analyze “classical” approaches to the definition of the “legal fact” concept in works by F. Savigny, H. Dernburg, R. Sohm, G. Puchta, А.Ton, Ye. Tsytelman, L. Enneccerus, B. Windscheid, K. Lorenz, F. Wieacker, R.Knieper and others. It is argued that the concept of “legal fact” enshrined in Part 2, Article 11 of the Civil Code of Ukraine (Ukraine’s CC) evidences the perception of a settled theoretical position according to which it is legal facts that lay the basis for the origination of civil rights and obligations. According to the conclusion made on the basis of the study findings, the authors maintain that legal facts have a wider capability than just to ensure the movement of legal relations. Legal facts can also give rise to legal capacity, legal competence, subjective rights and legal obligations which do not correspond to each other, and separate legal authorities. It is proved that the modern view on the legal fact’s nature is shifting from the position according to which the State recognizes a respective phenomenon of the outside world as such a fact towards recognition of a consequence of a respective phenomenon of reality as a legal fact. In this context, the grounds for imparting legal significance to such a fact are, along with a legal rule, other legal regulators of behavior of participants to civil relations (in particular, contract). Special attention is paid to the study of the set of facts. In this article, the “set of facts” refers to a set of legal facts, which in the structural unity entail the consequence in the form of establishment, exercise and termination of subjective civil rights, legal obligations, civil legal relations in general etc. In this context, separate legal facts are incorporated in the set of facts as its elements. The article defines general and special features of a legal fact. Common features of the legal fact are defined as follows: 1) it is specific; 2) it has subject-object causation; 3) attribution; 4) individuality; 5) spatial and temporal certainty; 6) normative formalization; 7) consequence. A legal fact also has special features, namely: 1) the nature of consequences it entails; 2) regressivity of information; 3) combination of legal facts. The concept of legal fact is revealed through the role of a body of general philosophical and special legal features (and thus the definition of legal fact is based on its understanding as a consequence of a fragment of reality, the establishment of which in a normatively formalized manner affects the development of law-absorbent constructs in social relations). Given the latest approaches to defining the nature of legal facts in civil law, the authors believe that it is crucial to make a recodification of civil legislation of Ukraine and improve the relevant provisions of the current Civil Code of Ukraine, with due regard for the developments of modern civil doctrine.

List of legal documents 

Legislation 
1. À la modernisation et à la simplification du droit et des procédures dans les domaines de la justice et des affaires intérieures [On Modernization and simplification of law and procedures in the fields of justice and internal affairs]: Loi № 2015-177 du 16 février 2015 (accessed: 28.01.2019) (in French). 
2. Das Osterreichesche ABGB – The Austrian Civil Code. Text of the law ingl glossary: German/English (LexisNexis 2013) (in German and in English). 
3. Tsyvilnyi kodeks Ukrainy [The Civil Code of Ukraine]: Zakon Ukrainy [the Law of Ukraine] vid 16 sichnia 2003 r. № 435 (accessed: 16.11.2018) (in Ukrainian). 

Bibliography 

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Journal articles 
22. Andronova V, ‘Funktsii yurydychnykh faktiv u trudovomu pravi Ukrainy’ [‘Functions of Legal Facts in Labor Law of Ukraine’] (2011) 4 Yurydychnyi visnyk (in Ukrainian). 
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Conference paper 
24. Chegovadze L, ‘Juridicheskij fakt kak sredstvo formal’noj opredelennosti javlenij’ [‘Legal Fact as a Means of Formal Certainty of Phenomena’] v Kanzafarova I (red), Treti yurydychni dysputy z aktualnykh problem pryvatnoho prava, prysviacheni pamiati Ye. V. Vaskovskoho: materialy Mizhnarodnoi naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii [Third Legal Disputes on the Topical Issues of Private Law Dedicated to the Memory of Ye. V. Vaskovskyi: materials of the International Scientific and Practical Conference] (Astroprint 2013) (in Russian). 
25. Karagusov F, ‘O vlijanii uchenija o juridicheskih faktah na razvitie zakonodatel’stva i juridicheskoj praktiki’ [‘On the Impact of the Legal Facts Doctrine on the Development of Legislation and Legal Practice’] v Yuridicheskie fakty kak osnovaniya vozniknoveniya, izmeneniya i prekrashcheniya grazhdanskikh pravootnosheniy: materialy mezhdunarodnoy nauch-prakt konf v ramkakh ezhegodnykh tsivilisticheskikh chteniy, posvyashchennye 20-letiyu NII chastnogo prava i 10-letiyu KMA [Legal Facts as the Basis for the Emergence, Change and Termination of Civil-Law Relations: materials of the International Scientific and Practical Conference as Part of the Annual Civil Law Readings Dedicated to the 20th Anniversary of the Scientific Research Institute for Private Law and the 10th Anniversary of the Kazakhstan International Arbitration Court] (Deuіr-Kіtap 2016) (in Russian). 
26. Kniper R, ‘Juridicheskie fakty: vozniknovenie i upadok odnogo pravovogo instituta v nemeckom prave’ [‘Legal Facts: the Emergence and Decline of One Legal Institution in German Law’] v Yuridicheskie fakty kak osnovaniya vozniknoveniya, izmeneniya i prekrashcheniya grazhdanskikh pravootnosheniy: materialy mezhdunarodnoy nauchprakt konf v ramkakh ezhegodnykh tsivilisticheskikh chteniy, posvyashchennye 20-letiyu NII chastnogo prava i 10-letiyu KMA [Legal Facts as the Basis for the Emergence, Change and Termination of Civil-Law Relations: materials of the International Scientific and Practical Conference as Part of the Annual Civil Law Readings Dedicated to the 20th Anniversary of the Scientific Research Institute for Private Law and the 10th Anniversary of the Kazakhstan International Arbitration Court] (Deuіr-Kіtap 2016) (in Russian). 

Thesis abstracts 
27. Kovalska V, ‘Yurydychnyi fakt yak pidstava zminy ta prypynennia simeinykh pravovidnosyn’ [‘Legal Fact as the Ground for a Change and Termination of Family Relations’] (avtoref dys kand yuryd nauk, Mizhnarodnyi humanitarnyi universytet 2013) (in Ukrainian). 
28. Rjabov A, ‘Juridicheskie fakty v mehanizme pravovogo regulirovanija’ ‘Legal Facts in the Legal Regulation Mechanism’] (avtoref dys kand yuryd nauk, Gosudarstvennoe obrazovatel’noe uchrezhdenie vysshego professional’nogo obrazovaniya “Nizhegorodskiy gosudarstvennyy universitet im N I Lobachevskogo” 2005) (in Russian).