In this article, we study the legal ideas of Emmanuel Levy, a prominent French lawyer of the first half of the 20th century, related to understanding the nature of law and discovering the sources from which law arises. Based on the analysis of original sources, we establish that Levy advocated a kind of «fideist» understanding of law. His teaching proclaims that any law is based on collective beliefs of social groups. Conversely, law does not exist outside the collective faith. This thesis simultaneously embraces objective law, enshrined in the form of a normative system in legislation and judicial practice, and subjective law, which Levy reduces to the collective law of demand. Taking into account Levy’s thesis that law is a practical substitute for religion, the article gives a detailed description of his views on the essence of collective beliefs which can originate law. These beliefs, from the point of view of Levy, are: super-intellectual (alogical or mystical); creative (active and transformative social order); measurable (law is born when alogical beliefs are measured by reason). At the same time, the main measuring factors that the verifiers of collective beliefs (judges) use are time and money. Special attention in the article is paid to the consideration of the meaning of the notion «croyance» (from French «belief»), which is used in Levy's doctrine. It has been established that in some cases Levy uses the term «croyance» to denote the factual basis, which determines the possibility of transforming the law over time (ensures the evolution of law). On the other hand, the notion of «croyance» in Levy’s teaching is interpreted as a philosophical basis for the transfer of rights that takes place among individuals within the framework of the legal order. At the end of the article, a number of conclusions are formulated regarding the role and significance of the legal ideas of Emmanuel Levy in the general theory and philosophy of law.
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