Methodological foundations of the cognition of children's rights

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore techniques and methods of the cognition of legal phenomena, scientific analysis of children's rights as a legal phenomenon, identification of general patterns, and formalisation and generalisation of children's rights at the world and national levels. The methodological basis of the study was the use of a set of methods necessary for the implementation of the scientific goal and the fulfilment of the tasks set, in particular: analysis of the rights of the child in international documents and legislation of Ukraine, the method of generalisation, hermeneutics regarding the interpretation and processing of texts of normative and doctrinal sources, and other philosophical, general scientific, and special methods. The scientific originality lies in the fact that the author has for the first time considered the rights of the child as legal phenomena that have specific features, depending on the subject, types, and age of the child. The methodological foundations of cognition of the rights of the child at each stage of its development are highlighted and the application of a number of the above methods is proposed. The scientific tools of cognition of children's rights are structured. The study of children's rights is a complex and multifaceted process of human thinking, which is necessary for improving legal mechanisms and protecting the rights of minors. Techniques and methods of cognition depend on the specifics of the legal phenomenon and the sphere of cognition. However, the scientific approaches, methods and principles of scientific research on children's rights considered in our study should be applied in a complex, preventing contradictions and refuting the results obtained by using various tools. All these methodological tools prove their value at every stage and in every segment of the study. Depending on the object of knowledge, the predominance of a certain methodological tool for implementing a specific research task is evident. Based on the conducted research, a number of generalisations are formulated, including the following: scientific cognition of children's rights is impossible without a well-chosen methodology; the methodology of scientific cognition of children's rights is a complex phenomenon that covers the structure and system of legal scientific knowledge of its theories and concepts. Methodological foundations of knowledge of children's rights form a multi-level system, which is developed by the principles of scientific cognition, dominant worldview, type of scientific thinking, philosophical foundations, scientific paradigms, methodological approaches, and scientific methods

Keywords

• methodology
• foundations
• rights of the child
• cognition process
• research
• philosophical method
• general scientific method
• special method of cognition