The Dogma of Law in the Context of a “Level-Based” Legal Cognition System

The term “dogma of law” is quite common in legal science. Usually, the prevalence factor is a kind of guarantee of unity in understanding, which eliminates the need for a stage of clarifying terms. Nevertheless, the connotations of dogmatism in jurisprudence are very diverse and find their objectification in a wide range: from “technical jurisprudence” to “a holistic presentation of the principles and principles of law, the doctrine of law”, from “fictitiousness” to “stable intellectual structure”, from “a tool for optimizing legal practice” to “dogmatic truth” and etc. To understand the place and role of legal phenomena in the system of legal knowledge, it is necessary to use appropriate tools tied to a stable “coordinate system”. In this capacity, a “tiered” system of legal cognition can be used, which recognizes the existence of three levels (types) of cognition: empirical, theoretical and metatheoretical. Differentiation and subsequent integration of knowledge about legal dogma using this system will make it possible to better understand the mechanism of legal thinking. The purpose of the study is to analyze the possibilities of a “level‑based” legal cognition system in identifying the concept of “dogma of law”. Research methods: differentiation and integration, empirical analysis, theoretical generalization, metatheoretical mediation. The results of the study: 1) it is impossible to create a consistent theory of the dogma of law without correlating this phenomenon with the levels of scientific knowledge; 2) dogma is tied to a specific cognitive system, the main contours of which are formed at the meta‑theoretical level. Knowledge loses the quality of dogmatism during the transition to another cognitive system, within the framework of another meta‑theory; 3) the dogma of law is not a product of “primitive” empiricism, not an empirical reality, but a practical result of the implementation of theoretical thinking. Dogmatism is a property of law that finds expression in any of its established forms; 4) dogmatism encompasses a phenomenon (cognitive mode) in the connectedness, interdependence and interdependence of its individual elements. The set of these elements can be transformed based on cognitive needs.