The need for a sustainable development of national society and law in the context of European integration and globalization brings about the task of shaping the doctrine of legal methodology of law according to the European standards of law, and its application in Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to give a characterization of the idea, concept and system of legal methodology as the basic elements of the doctrine of legal methodology of Ukraine’s private (civil) law. The methodology of private (civil) law is a kind of branch-specific methodology which defines the system of principles and the methods for comprehending the worldview notions of private (civil) law, as well as the doctrine of this system. The private law methodology reflects the specifics of subjective civil rights and interests and their relationship to public rights and interests, all this resulting in the specifics of application or even the presence of methods, principles and legal constructions unknown to public rights. Private (civil) law of Ukraine should be methodologically underlain by the concept of sociological understanding of law, which concept corresponds to the legislatively formulated (primarily, in the Civil Code of Ukraine) mechanisms of understanding of law as an instrument of “living” law, according to which a provision of law should be applied and interpreted in the manner consistent with actually existing social relations as of the time when this provision of law applies. The modern methodology of private (civil) law of a liberal type is determined by two basic concepts of understanding of law – legal rationalism and jurisprudence of interests which have been formed as a resultof millennial evolution of the Western tradition of law. The legal rationalism concept recognizes as law not so much a “dead” provision formally enshrined in law, as the making of law as a result of application of law by authorized state bodies and individuals. The legal rationalism methodology is based on a systematic analysis of social relations, with due regard for all of the social regulators (economy, ethics, religion, etc.) essential for law. The essence of the term “jurisprudence of interests” is that instead of obtaining the result through logical interpretation of concepts, a provision of law is considered as a reasonable and precisely targeted resolution by the legislator of a certain conflictof interests. The subject of law application should recognize the interests protected by law and adhere to them when applying the provisions of legislation and resolving disputes. The search for an equitable decision should not be based on a subjective view of justice which a particular subject of law has, but should be made within the methodology of teleological jurisprudence of values which envisages that in case of resolving a legal dispute, justice means ensuring a balance of interests of the parties to the conflict in accordance with the values protected by law. The division of the private law methodology into separate methodological areas and tools provides for the division of legal phenomena constituting the subject matter of the private law methodology, depending on their content and nature, into two parts – general and special ones, with each of them also divided into sections.

List of legal documents 

Legislation 
1. Uhoda pro аsotsiatsiiu mizh Ukrainoiu, z odniiei storony, ta Yevropeiskym Soiuzom, Yevropeiskym spivtovarystvom z atomnoi enerhii i yikhnimy derzhavamy-chlenamy, z inshoi storony [Association Agreement between Ukraine, of the One Part, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and Their Member States, of the Other Part] vid 27 chervnia 2014 r. (accessed: 24.12.2018) (in Ukrainian). 

Bibliography 
Authored books 
2. Heck Ph, ‘Gesetzesauslegung und Interessensjurisprudenz’ (1914) 112 AcP, 1, 17 (in German). 
3. Haddamer H, Istyna i metodolohichni osnovy filosofskoi hermenevtyky [The Truth and Methodological Bases of Philosophical Hermeneutics] (2000) (in Ukrainian). 
4. Kashanina T, Juridicheskaja tehnika: uchebnik [Legal Technique: Textbook] (Norma: INFRA-M 2011) (in Russian). 
5. Kerimov K, Metodologija prava (predmet, funktsii, problemy filosofii prava) [Methodology of Law (Subject, Functions, Problems of Legal Philosophy)] (2000) (in Russian). 
6. Maidanyk R, Tsyvilne pravo: Zahalna chastyna [Civil Law: General Part], t I. Vstup u tsyvilne pravo [Introduction to Civil Law] (Alerta 2012) (in Ukrainian). 
7. Stammler R, Hozjajstvo i pravo s tochki zrenija materialisticheskogo ponimanija istorii [Economy and Law from the Perspective of Materialistic Understanding of History] (Tipografija M Merkusheva 1898) (in Russian). 
8. – –, Jekonomika i pravo s materialisticheskoj tochki zrenija na istoriju [Economics and Law from a Materialistic Point of View on History] (1896; rus. perevod: 1898) (in Russian). 
9. – –, Uchenije o pravilnom prave [The Good Law Doctrine] (1902) (in Russian). 

Edited books 
10. Berndt Ruethers und Christian Fischer und Axel Birk, Rechtstheorie mit Juristisсher Methodenlehre (Verlag C H Beck 2013) (in German). 
11. Bezklubyi I (zah red), Metodolohiia v pravi: monohrafiia [Methodology in Law: Monograph] (Hramota 2017) (in Ukrainian). 
12. Bostan S ta inshi, Teoriia derzhavy i prava: navchalnyi posibnyk [Theory of State and Law: Tutorial] (Akademiia 2013) (in Ukrainian). 
13. Kozjubra N, ‘Ponjatie i struktura metodologii juridicheskoj nauki’ [‘The Concept and Structure of the Legal Science Methodology’] v Kozjubra N (otv red), Metodologicheskie problemy juridicheskoj nauki: sbornik nauchnyh trudov [Methodological Issues of Legal Science: Collected Academic Papers] (Naukova dumka 1990) (in Russian). 
14. Majdanik R, ‘Metodologija racionalizma v chastnom prave Ukrainy i Germanii’ [‘Methodology of Rationalism in Private Law of Ukraine and Germany’] v Majdanik R (red), Al’manah civilistiki: sbornik statej [Almanac of Civil Law: Collected Articles], vyp 6 (Alerta 2015) (in Russian). 

Journal articles 
15. Kurzinski-Singer E, ‘Jurisprudencija cennostej kak osnova metodiki nemeckogo prava’ [‘Jurisprudence of Values as the Basis for the German Law Methodology’] [2011] 1(35) Aktual’nye problemy vysshej shkoly. Nauchnye trudy “Jedilet” 87-94 (in Russian). 

Conference paper 
16. Belov V, ‘Nauka prava (pravovedenie ili jurisprudencija): krizisnoe sostojanie i puti ego preodolenija (Doklad, prochitannyj 27 ijunja 2016 g. v ramkah raboty letnej Nauchnoj shkoly Universiteta im. O. K. Kutafina)’ [‘Science of Law (Law or Jurisprudence): the Crisis and Ways to Overcome It (Report Read on June 27, 2016 within the Framework of the Summer Scientific School of K. O. Kutafin University)’] (accessed: 24.12.2018) (in Russian). 
17. Koziubra M, ‘Pravo yak yavyshche kultury’ [‘Law as a Cultural Phenomenon’] v Pravo i kultura: teoriia i praktyka: materialy Mizhnarodnoi naukovo-praktychnoi konferentsii [Law and Culture: Theory and Practice: Materials of the International Scientific and Practical Conference] (1997) (іn Ukrainian). 
18. Maidanyk R, ‘Metodolohiia pryvatnoho prava Ukrainy v umovakh yevrointehratsii: zastosuvannia i tlumachennia prava, tekhnika vyrishennia sporu’ [‘Ukraine’s Private Law Methodology in the Context of European Integration: Law Application and Interpretation, Dispute Resolution Technique’] v Pryntsypy i tendentsii zastosuvannia pryvatnoho prava YeS i postradianskykh krain: materialy VII Mizhnarodnoho tsyvilistychnoho forumu [Principles and Trends of Application of EU and Former Soviet Countries’ Private Law: Materials of the VII International Civil Law Forum] (Bilotserkivdruk 2018) (in Ukrainian). 

Thesis abstracts 
19. Simson O, ‘Pravova model derzhavno-pryvatnoho partnerstva yak instrument harmonizatsii publichnykh i pryvatnykh interesiv v innovatsiinii stratehii Ukrainy’ [‘Legal Model of Public-private Partnership as an Instrument of Harmonization of Public and Private Interests in the Innovation Strategy of Ukraine’] (avtoref dys d-ra yuryd nauk, Nats yuryd un-t im Yaroslava Mudroho 2015) (in Ukrainian).