The relevance of this article is due to the ambiguity of the situation of trade unions in Ukraine and the lack of an effective mechanism for the protection of the rights of public officials, which directly influences the development of the state as democratic and legal. The objective of the article is to analyze the state of activity and functioning of the trade union movement in the public administration, to: describe deficiencies in these activities and identify ways to extrapolate positive international experiences in the matter to Ukraine. The main methods used were the general methods of scientific and specific research, including the methods of logic, analysis and comparison of the sources collected. By way of conclusion, the results of this study highlight the problems of union functioning together with the peculiarities in the civil service, therefore, it is proposed to amend the current legislation of Ukraine in order to protect the social and labor rights of public officials. The importance of the results obtained is further reflected in the fact that this study can serve as a basis for outlining future changes to Ukraine's current legislation on the functioning of trade unions in the civil service.

The article reflects the diversity of views on the concept of "legal axiom". It is clarified that there are lawyers who deny the existence of the concept of "axiom" in law. It is presented that some scholars identify legal axioms with legal customs in terms of content, formulation and existence, as well as methods of provision. It is revealed that legal axioms have common features and differences with legal presumptions. It is emphasized that the legal presumption and legal axiom are understood as true without evidence. It is considered that the difference between a legal presumption and a legal axiom lies in the difference of circumstances: they allow to consider them plausible; possibilities (impossibilities) of refutation; significance, content and form It is demonstrated that there are several approaches to the relationship of legal axioms with the principles of law. It has been found that the first group of scholars identify the principles of law and axioms. Attention is drawn to the fact that the second group of scholars notes that axioms are prerequisites for the principles of law. It is presented that the representatives of the third group distinguish between the concepts of principles of law and legal axioms. It has been shown that the complex interrelationships of principles and axioms are reflected in their dialectical unity, their ability to pass from one to another, and the disclosure of one phenomenon through another. It is noted that axioms are subject to change, so axioms and presumptions are closely interrelated and under certain conditions can replace each other. The definition of legal axioms has been further considered. Legal axioms are a multifaceted complex phenomenon of legal reality related to law, legal awareness and legal science. regularities, properties of special legal principles of law and serve to simplify legal regulation.

The article emphasizes that in legal science there is no single approach to the terminology of evaluative concepts. It is highlighted that the uncertainty of terminology creates difficulties in using the concept in scientific activities and in their practical application. The thesis that the variant "evaluative" concept does not correspond to the rules of Ukrainian language formation and is a tracing paper from the Russian-language analogue was further considered. It is emphasized that the term "evaluative" concept is more acceptable for use. It has been found that there is a pluralism of definitions of the valuation concept. It is noted that scientists provide various definitions of evaluative concepts. It is emphasized that in the definition of evaluative concepts attention is paid to certain specific features of the legal phenomenon. It is highlighted that the evaluative concept is the expression in the rule of law of phenomena that have an abstract character, have indefinite features, become concretized as a result of the application of law, the purpose of which is to provide the authorized entity, based on its legal culture, personification have the meaning enshrined in the rule of law. It is considered that views on the properties of evaluative concepts in the legal literature also differ. It is emphasized that understanding the features of evaluative concepts is important for scientific understanding and practical use of this phenomenon. Scientists have been shown to focus on the objective or subjective properties of evaluative concepts. It is shown that the signs of evaluative concepts as a legal phenomenon are 1) are abstract in nature; 2) vagueness of signs; 3) specification in the process of law enforcement; 4) the content of the legal culture of the person authorized to apply the legal norm; 5) the content is actually determined by the subject of law enforcement; 6) individualization of facts that have a meaning based on the rule of law.

The article focuses on the fact that in legal science there is still no unanimous opinion regarding the concept of research methodology of state legal higher education institutions. The thesis that state and law research methods can be classified depending on the field of scientific knowledge into general scientific research methods, which are included in general philosophy and are applied in all fields of knowledge, received further consideration; private scientific research methods developed and used in the field of one science or several related sciences; special research methods that can be applied in one science, as well as in several related sciences, using knowledge of different types of sciences. It is highlighted that the complexity of society, multifacetedness and branching of the interests of its members determines the need to study society as a complex structure. This obliges the need to study such social institutions as law and the state using the methods of sociology. It is emphasized that the use of statistical methods in social sciences in general and jurisprudence in particular is justified, this is caused by the fact that statistical regularities characterizing social processes cannot be explained directly by the action of these regularities. But the general data characterizing the set of these phenomena are relatively stable and predictable. It is revealed that thanks to statistical methods of research, it is possible to work out issues related to state-legal phenomena perfectly, from different angles, while making it possible to study the state and law from different angles, to evaluate the effectiveness of the state apparatus in particular and the state mechanism in general, to understand the peculiarities of social - economic development of the state and the legal system. It has been demonstrated that the psychological method of research is used more and more actively at the current stage of the development of legal science, thanks to it it is possible to solve problems related to the issues of psychological processes that occur in the brains of people and their behavior.

The article highlights that the classification of legal axioms is understood in several senses: the process of creating a classification scheme; the process of grouping objects; the result of scientific research. It is presented that the classification of legal axioms is an independent and self-sufficient research method and at the same time - an auxiliary, the result of which is important for the continuation of scientific research. It is considered that the classification of legal axioms acts as a method of scientific knowledge and as a stage of scientific research. The view is shown that the classification in law has its own specific features. It is presented that there is a point of view according to which the classification of legal phenomena is carried out by a special method. The division of legal axioms depending on the branches of law into legal axioms of procedural and substantive law has been further considered. It is noted that axioms in procedural law are traditionally more common than in substantive law, due to the specifics of procedural law, rather than the fact that they are more studied. It is highlighted that the axioms of common law, intersectoral, branch are distinguished from the scale of functioning. It is emphasized that this criterion reflects the view of scientists who either identify axioms with principles, or believe that they are very close to each other, but are not similar concepts. It is noted that the content of legal axioms is divided into normative, which are legal commands enshrined in the texts of regulations and scientific judgments are conceptual provisions that contain conceptual provisions formulated by scientists as well-known postulates. Attention is focused on the fact that the following types of axioms can be distinguished from the form of enshrinement: enshrined directly, which are derived from the content of legal norms that have been enshrined in law. The division of legal axioms depending on the ways of origin into legal axioms, which arose as a result of legal practice, and those that appeared as a result of legal awareness, is proposed.