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or systems – economic, political and educational. These functions are
called social.
In general, the social functions of law can be defined as the
direction of retroactive influence over the relevant spheres of public

life. Thus, the economic function is a legal effect over the economic
sphere; political – political; educational – spiritual.
The notion of "source of law" is used in legal science in three

meanings:
- the material source is a system of objective needs of social
development, in particular, social relations and interests, requiring the
legal documentation;

- the ideal source is the reflection of the material source of law in
the justice of the legislator and other entities of law-making, their
awareness of objective needs of social development;

- the formal legal source of law is a legally formalized result of
ideological awareness of objective needs of social development,
otherwise it is called the forms of law.

The form of law is a means of expressing and consolidating the
rules of law, emanating from the state. There are four forms of law:
- legal custom – a spontaneously formed persistent rule of

conduct, authorized by the state;
- legal precedent – a decision in a specific case, which is given
normative force, and which is a model for the solution of similar
cases;

- normative legal act – a written document which has been
approved in accordance with the established procedure by the
competent authority of the state and contains legal generalized norms;

-normal agreement – an agreement between two or more subjects
of law which contains mandatory instructions for them.

1.3. The role of law in the formation of legal state and civil
society.

In the opinion of ancient philosophers and lawyers, the legal
state is a state in which truth, justice, and law are traditionally
considered divine guidance, necessary attributes of cosmic and

earthly orders, antipodes of violence, arbitrariness and chaos.

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