Introduction. As an element of legal regulation, private legal regime is a legal category, the concept of which is regarded ambiguously in doctrine and depends on the general understanding of the category «legal regime». Socio-economic, political changes in society are accompanied by changes in the nature of social relations, requiring proper legal regulation in the area of private interest protection. Methods. On the basis of the analysis of definitions of legal regime formulated in the theory of law, a generalised approach to the understanding of private legal regime was developed. The application of formal legal method made it possible to reveal the concept and specific features of the private legal regime. The system-structural method was used to determine the significance of legal means (ways, methods, principles, types of legal regulation) in the structure of private legal regime. The application of modelling enabled to reveal the effectiveness of private legal regulation of public relations. Results. The concept and essential features of private legal regime are identified; the model of private legal regime as a variable combination of a complex of legal means determining the orientation of private legal regulation of property and personal non-property relations based on equality, autonomy of will and material independence of their participants is defined.