The purpose of the article is to develop a legal approach to the concept of social trauma proposed by sociologists, defining the role of law in overcoming social traumas. Based on the analysis of the views of researchers belonging to different areas of knowledge, it is shown that the concept of «social trauma» is closely related to the concept of collective memory.» The correlation of the results of a formal, legal, historical analysis of a large body of normative documents with the stages of the social trauma dynamics proposed by P. Sztompka allows determining the significance of the regulatory framework for the pre-, post- and traumatic social development itself. In conclusion the authors give a definition of social trauma in the legal aspect, conclude that the law can play the role of a tool to mitigate the effects of existing traumas and prevent the emergence of new ones.