THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ON THE METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH IN THE SCIENCE OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

Abstract

The article examines the impact of digital transformation on the methodology of scientific research in the field of administrative law. It emphasizes that digitalization has become one of the leading drivers of modern society, fundamentally reshaping both public administration and legal science. The introduction of information and communication technologies, e-government, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and big data analytics has created a new quality of administrative and legal relations and highlighted the need for appropriate theoretical and methodological support.It is revealed that digital transformation leads not only to the modernization of the public sector but also to changes in the subject matter and methods of administrative law as a science. Special attention is given to the need for combining philosophical, general scientific, and specifically legal methods of cognition, as well as to the issue of methodological pluralism, which simultaneously opens up new opportunities and poses challenges for scientific coherence. The article notes that the digital era requires the integration of interdisciplinary approaches, particularly those of computer science, systems theory, statistics, and cybernetics, ensuring a more comprehensive study of new phenomena in public administration. The emergence of new research tools is analyzed, including the use of big data analytics, modeling, computer technologies, and machine learning algorithms for the study of judicial practice and administrative procedures. It is demonstrated that traditional qualitative methods are gradually being complemented by empirical approaches focused on measurable outcomes.The article also highlights that digitalization challenges certain classical doctrines of administrative law, particularly with regard to the legal personality of artificial intelligence, and stimulates the development of new concepts of responsibility and control.The conclusions substantiate that digital transformation influences methodology in two key ways: first, it expands the range of methods and approaches, making research more empirically oriented; second, it transforms the research paradigm, which is gradually shifting from a traditional normativist model to a modern systemic, human-centered, and information-oriented doctrine. This ensures the ability of the science of administrative law to adequately respond to the challenges of the digital age.