The demand for the study of sources of law in the context of law formation is due to the incomplete coverage of all aspects of social processes in positive law. Legal mono-doctrines are not capable of covering all the features of law due to the limitations of legal criteria and sources of law, which determine the dominance of one of the features of law. The article substantiates the possibility of using the criteria of the integrative concept of legal understanding, aimed at achieving a balance of rights and obligations, as allowing the formation of law on the basis of expanding the range of sources of law, including natural law elements, and overcoming the limitations of sources of law. The criteria of law presented in the article, including the principle of formal equality, axiological principles, the principle of equivalence, etc., make it possible to update and select law from emerging social relations.