Legal Theorist, Methodologist and Lyricist (To the 70th Anniversary of Professor Mykhailo Stepanovych Kelman)

Abstract. The biographical essay about Professor, Doctor of Law Mykhailo Kelman outlines not only the milestones of the life of a Ukrainian personality, but also the boundary segment of the progress of jurisprudence over the three decades of independence of modern Ukraine. He humbly brings to the "human court" the criticism of the age-old burden of historical heritage, responsibility for the ideas of the present and “arguments” distorted by pseudo-science. All of this is done methodologically soundly on the basis of the author's theory of analyzing the methods proposed at the stage of reforming jurisprudence, taking into account domestic and foreign achievements. His works are the fruit of active cooperation with the scientific legal community in solving the problems formed by such luminaries as M. I. Kozyubra, O. D. Tikhomirov, S. Husarev, P. M. Rabinovych and others. The monographic work "Legal Science as an Object of Methodological Research" (2011) forms the concept of legal methodology, integration of legal science into modern social sciences and humanities, and legal practice. Keywords: jurisprudence; methodology; pedagogy; sports; poetry.