The fundamental research question of the paper is whether the legal norms governing the system of science and higher education have characteristics based on which it would be justified to interpret them as an independent systematic entity, that is, as a separate branch of law? It necessarily requires a clear determination of these characteristics, as well as criteria for independent interpretation. Also, the highlighted issue is primarily focused on the development of the system of science and higher education since the adoption of the Bologna Declaration, which is symbolically taken as the beginning of the reform, until today. The doctoral thesis contains eight chapters. The first chapter presents an explanation of the topics and the methodological approaches and empirical points of view that are used. It is primarily about the normative and dogmatic method based on which the scientific and hierarchical systematization of this part of the legal system follows. Also, the neo-functionalist interpretation of N. Luhmann's system is applied to a considerable extent. The analysis of the system of science and higher education in the context of administrative law is the subject of the second chapter in order to highlight, among other things, the peculiarities of "university law and the law of scientific organizations" with regard to the subject of standardization, principles, types of legal sources, division of legal norms, types of legal institutions and subjects. The highlighted features are discussed separately in the following chapters. Therefore, the topic of the third chapter is the research of the principles that derive from the Constitution and laws that directly condition or should condition the norming, and which at the same time emphasize the different legal status of university higher education institutions from other scientific organizations (for example, the principle of autonomy, academic freedom and self-governance). In the fourth chapter, formal legal sources are systematized: the Constitution, international treaties, laws, sub-legal general normative acts, autonomous legal sources of (primarily) university higher education institutions, judicial practice, European sources, strategic documents, etc. Examination of social relations as material sources of "university law and the law of scientific organizations" is the topic of the fifth chapter, which is also a kind of introduction to the empirical parts of the research of the doctoral thesis. The seventh and eighth chapters are the concluding chapters and represent a synthesis of the conducted research that is, connecting the conclusions of the central chapters with the introductory theses and considerations