THE CRITERIA FOR THE RULE OF LAW AND THE RULE OF LAW IN THE SPHERE OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT Boev Alexander Alexandrovich, postgraduate student. <...> Place of study: The Russian President Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. <...> Annotation: Constitutional legitimacy and responsibility of local government as a condition of the special legal validity of expressing an organic combination of power, the rule of law and freedom of self-government; the unity of the legal space with the inner self of the population; interrelated requirements of the local community and the state to all participants in public relations. <...> In the article the author discusses the fundamental criteria of legality in the field of local self-government, provides options to streamline evaluation criterion of legality. <...> Конституционная законность и ответственность местного самоуправления как состояние особой юридической правомерности выражают органическое сочетание власти, правопорядка и свободы самоуправления; единство правового пространства при внутренней самоорганизации населения; взаимосвязанных требований местного сообщества и государства ко всем участникам общественных отношений. <...>