The article analyzes the concept of sociological and legal research as a system of consistent methodological, methodical and organizational technical procedures for obtaining scientific knowledge about law as a social phenomenon, and the process of its functioning in the society. Sociological and legal studies provide public with the information on the whole spectrum of issues of law functioning, its social effectiveness and problematic aspects of social governance. The role and significance of sociological and legal researches are revealed. Building a democratic society requires emphasizing on the importance of sociological factors in the sphere of state and law-making, including justice and law enforcement. The need to develop and implement an effective social policy and social governance strategy necessitates the refinement of theoretical analysis approaches to socio-legal research and their tools. The following features of sociological and legal researches are distinguished: methodological, which is connected with ensuring realization of interdisciplinary connections of sociology with other humanities; cognitive as acquiring new knowledge about the development and functioning of society in general; practical as developing a system of practical measures to further improve social reality and to build effective measures of social control over social processes; informational as receiving various types of social information regarding the state and tendencies of social processes development and phenomena; management, which ensures optimization of social governance at all levels. The concept of “sociological information” has been analyzed and its requirements have been revealed, including objectivity, truth, science, reliability, completeness, validity, accuracy, competence, systematization, usefulness, efficiency, economy, clarity, conciseness, etc. Elements that are common to both sociological and sociological research are characterized, including the object, subject, subject, purpose, objectives and results of the study. The stages of sociological and legal researches are distinguished and analyzed: development of the research program, collecting of empirical data, processing of information, analysis and generalization of the received information
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