SYMBOL AND LEGAL MYTH

The aim of this paper is to prove the hypothesis: symbol plays a decisive role in the process of legal myth-making; it occupies a central place in the structure of the legal myth. Nowadays, the role of the symbol in the structure of legal myth has not been sufficiently studied in Ukrainian and foreign science, which explains the relevance of our research. Symbol and legal myth have much in common, for example: sociocultural characteristics; timelessness; the ability to combine opposites. Every legal myth is a combination of legal reality and the unreal. Legal myths and mythologemes are rooted in the collective consciousness, but they also manifest subconscious intentions. Based on the analysis of some legal myths common in modern Ukraine and the world (myths about the omnipotence of the state and law; myth about the inevitability of punishment; myth about the inviolability of legal norms), it is shown how the set of key symbols (symbolic field) forms the primary structure of the myth. Thanks to symbolic reduction in the process of myth-making, the main thing is separated from the secondary. The evolution of the legal myth in time and space consolidates and develops "eternal" mythologemes and "eternal" mythical plots. Methods used in the study: general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction); methods of theoretical research (from abstract to concrete), historical method, philosophical methodology (phenomenological method, dialectical method, anthropological approach).