The article substantiates the proposition about the expediency of considering legal identity as a special form of social identity and reveals its essence as a legal category. It was determined that legal identity is determined primarily by individual character, because it is an individual quality of a natural person, which consists in mutual understanding between this person and society, provides the possibility of optimal realization of subjective legal rights and contributes to the prompt implementation of subjective legal obligations, is the basis development of individual legal status and serves as a moral and psychological determinant of the nature of legal behavior of the subject of law.
It is emphasized that legal identity is a dynamic category that transforms in the process of legal socialization. The identity of a person in the scientific discourse is mostly interpreted as a dynamic, integral cognitive-motivational formation, and therefore it is a system of defining social constructs of the subject, which is constructed (formed) during life as a result of interaction, social comparison and active construction of social reality. Accordingly, legal identity has a dynamic character, contains a motivational component, is a system of social constructions of an individual as a legal subject and is formed in the process of social and legal interaction of similar and different legal subjects, reflects a moral and psychological comparison of oneself with the surrounding legal reality and is a factor that affects the legal matter of a certain society. Legal identity has an unstable nature and is transformed in the process of legal socialization of a person. Social and legal realities of a person cause changes in his personality, and the increase or, conversely, decrease in the value of law at a certain stage of a person's life is reflected in his essence.
1. Erik H. Erikson. Identität und Lebenszyklus. URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-531-92196-9_3 (Accessed: 17.05.2023). [in English].
2. Burke P. (2004) Identities and social structure. Social psychology quarterly. Vol. 67. No 1. P. 5–15. [in English].https://doi.org/10.1177/019027250406700103
3. Nahorna L. P. (2011) Sotsiokulturna identychnist: pastky tsinnisnykh rozmezhuvan [Sociocultural identity: pitfalls of value distinctions]. Kyiv: IPiEND im. I. F. Kurasa NAN Ukrainy Publ. 272 p. [in Ukrainian].
4. Herasymenko O. A. (2018) Psykholohichnyi zmist poniattia «pravova identychnist» [The psychological meaning of the concept of «legal identity»]. Psykholohichni ta pedahohichni problemy profesiinoi osvity ta patriotychnoho vykhovannia personalu systemy MVS Ukrainy : tezy dop. nauk.-prakt. konf. (m. Kharkiv, 30 berez. 2018 r.). MVS Ukrainy, Kharkiv. nats. un-t vnutr. sprav. Kharkiv. P. 265–268. [in Ukrainian].
5. Zemlianska O. V. (2004) Pravo yak faktor rehuliatsii povedinky osobystosti [Law as a factor in the regulation of individual behavior]. Osobystist yak obiekt sudovo-psykholohichnoi ekspertyzy. Kharkiv: NUVS Publ. P. 48–94. [in Ukrainian].
6. Paruta O. V. (2017) Pravova identychnist osoby [Legal identity of a person]: avtoreferat dysertatsii na zdobuttia naukovoho stupenia kandydata yurydychnykh nauk: 12.00.01 – teoriia ta istoriia derzhavy i prava; istoriia politychnykh i pravovykh uchen. Ministerstvo osvity i nauky Ukrainy, Natsionalnyi universytet «Lvivska politekhnika». Lviv. 17 p. [in Ukrainian].
7. Korol K. (2022) Pravova kultura ta formuvannia pravovoi identychnosti. [Legal culture and formation of legal identity]. Yevropeiskyi vybir Ukrainy, rozvytok nauky ta natsionalna bezpeka v realiiakh masshtabnoi viiskovoi ahresii ta hlobalnykh vyklykiv KhKhI stolittia» (do 25-richchia Natsionalnoho universytetu «Odeska yurydychna akademiia» ta 175-richchia Odeskoi shkoly prava): u 2 t. : materialy Mizhnar.nauk.-prakt. konf. (m. Odesa, 17 chervnia 2022 r.). Za zahalnoiu redaktsiieiu S. V. Kivalova. Odesa : Vydavnychyi dim «Helvetyka» Publ. Vol. 1. P. 126–128. [in Ukrainian].
8. Kravtsov Yu. S., Yakunina A. O. (2015) Pravova identychnist yak dukhovna skladova pravosvidomosti [Legal identity as a spiritual component of legal awareness]. Hrani. No 4. P. 96–99. [in Ukrainian].
9. Suchasne suspilstvo: filosofsko-pravove doslidzhennia aktualnykh problem : monohrafiia [Modern society: a philosophical and legal study of current problems] (2016). O. H. Danylian, O. P. Dzoban, S. B. Zhdanenko ta in.; za red. O. H. Danyliana. Kharkiv: Pravo Publ. 488 p. [in Ukrainian].
10. Slyvka S. S. (2005) Pryrodne ta nadpryrodne pravo[Natural and supernatural law]: u 3 ch. Ch. 1 : Pryrodne pravo: istoryko-filosofskyi pohliad. Kyiv: Atika Publ. 224 p. [in Ukrainian].
11. Didenko N. H. (2006) Pravova identychnist i pravovyi nihilizm u demokratychnomu suspilstvi [Legal identity and legal nihilism in a democratic society]. Identychnist u suchasnomu vymiri : mater. Mizhnar. nauk.-teoret. konf. Donetsk : TOV «Iuho-Vostok, Ltd» Publ. P. 123–125. [in Ukrainian].