Abstract: The introduction to this article deals with the problem of understanding legality as a fundamental category of legal science and legal practice in general. The genesis of the concept «legality» and the evolution of ideas about this category are considered both contextually, i.e. in terms of material conditions of people’s life and their mentality, and in discursive practices reflecting the scientific community’s ideas about this phenomenon. The connection of the connotation of this concept with the types of legal understanding is noted. Methods: this article proposes to use the post-classical approach as a kind of moderate post-postmodern type of scientific rationality, which emphasises the contextuality of legal phenomena. Therefore, this methodological strategy, from the point of view of the author of the article, looks more adequate in comparison with the established in science notion that «legality» is always a steady observance of the law, which has the attribute of universality and, therefore, has a universal character. The results of the study suggest the following: legality contains a dialectical combination: on the one hand, adherence to the law, on the other hand, it allows a certain backlash for the negation of old outdated norms in the everyday behavioural practices of all those who create and apply the law. This, in turn, gives grounds for an acceptable mechanism of adaptation to the system in which a person actually lives, in which he realises his social statuses, including in the sphere of law. The article actualises the idea that legality is a construct that is formed by man at all stages of his formation as a social being, in potency claiming universal law and order. Therefore, a more adequate strategy of understanding «legality» from the point of view of post-classical theory is proposed, according to which «legality» acts as a regime in which subjects of law realise their legal statuses in all spheres of society.