The current legal realities convincingly indicate that manipulation as a widely spread means of influence upon social relations is also actively used in the process of legal regulation, which cannot and should not be ignored by researchers in the field of general theory of law as well by other legal scholars. The article substantiates that manipulation by means of legal goals is an independent type of lawful behavior, the study of which will not only significantly enrich the instrumental theory of law, but also increase the effectiveness of the mechanism of legal regulation, diversify traditional approaches to the analysis of legal goals and means and their potential, and facilitate recognizing unfair use of legal means in achieving manipulative legal goals. Particular attention is devoted to the study of the manipulation by means of legal goals as a phenomenon inherent to regulation of social relations, its nature, content, signs and consequences. On specific examples, the position is substantiated that the manipulation by means of legal goals is a form of lawful behavior, despite the fact that the achievement of the goals of the manipulator is carried out at the expense and to the detriment of the interests of the object of manipulation. The fundamental method of the research was materialistic dialectics that has made it possible to substantiate the heterogeneous nature of the manipulation by means of legal goals and demonstrate its role in balancing the interests of the individual, society and the state. The formal legal method in combination with the laws of logic and the structural-functional approach were used in formulating the author’s definitions of manipulation as a generic concept, as well as in defining manipulation by means of legal goals as an independent legal category. The author actively used the provisions of hermeneutics and various technologies for interpreting the texts of legal acts, methods of analysis and synthesis, deduction and induction, abstraction and analogy. The conclusion is that despite the fact that the manipulation by means of legal goals transforms the needs and interests of the participants in legal relations in favor of the position of the subject of management, misleads the object of manipulation and impedes the effective functioning of the mechanism of legal regulation, it is a kind of response to the request of society as well as socially conditioned way of making impact on participants in legal relations. It also complies with current legislation and allows to realize unpopular decisions. It is emphasized that the manipulation by means of legal goals needs further research.