Abstract: The article studies letters of grants of the 17th – 18th centuries and demonstrates their role within the system of sources of Russian law. The author proves that letters of grants gave definite rights and privileges to towns and town population as autonomous subjects of legal relationship. The author finds out that the problem of inclusion of new areas into the jurisdictional space of the Russian state was the dominant in the policy of the supreme power in those regions. To study the nature of letters of grants as the sources of Russian town law, the author applies the method of historiographical and clausal analysis of sources along with the formal-legal method, generalization and abstraction. The author concludes that the legal nature of letters of grants was conditioned by certain peculiarities: their standardized and stereotyped character, adoption of foreign statutory concepts and compulsory approval by the supreme power. The study proves the thesis that, starting from the 18th century, the problem of defining operation limits of letters of grants within a town area has appeared, and it had to be incorporated in Russian legislation. 

Abstract: The object of this research is the basic category of legal science that is the “source of law”. The subject of this research is the main approaches devised by the historical and juridical sciences towards the concept of “source of law”. The author demonstrates that unlike in historical sciences, where the concept of “source of law” was examined only as a private case of the concept of “primary source”, in the legal science as a whole and law history in particular this is one of the fundamental categories. Among the main conclusions of the conducted research are the theses that the content of the definition of the “source of law” is influenced by the specific historical context, starting with the dominating legal tradition and ending with the value system that have been entrenched in the public consciousness of a specific era. The desire to move away from ambiguity of the concept of “source of law” led to emergence of new terms: “form of law”, “normative factor”, “monument of law”, and others.

Abstract: The object of this research is the basic category of legal science that is the “source of law”. The subject of this research is the main approaches devised by the historical and juridical sciences towards the concept of “source of law”. The author demonstrates that unlike in historical sciences, where the concept of “source of law” was examined only as a private case of the concept of “primary source”, in the legal science as a whole and law history in particular this is one of the fundamental categories. Among the main conclusions of the conducted research are the theses that the content of the definition of the “source of law” is influenced by the specific historical context, starting with the dominating legal tradition and ending with the value system that have been entrenched in the public consciousness of a specific era. The desire to move away from ambiguity of the concept of “source of law” led to emergence of new terms: “form of law”, “normative factor”, “monument of law”, and others.

Abstract: The object of this research is the sources of Russian law. The subject of this research is the elements of the formulation of Russian official documents of the XVII century. The author gives characteristics to the structural constructs of the conditional, abstract, concrete, and individual forms of legal acts. A special attention is given to the specificity of the application of formulary analysis in studying the legal nature of the Russian official documents of the XVII century. The author’s contribution into research of this topic lies in the application of formulary analysis in studying the legal nature of Russian official documents of the XVII century, which allows determining their type, examine their structure and extract information, establish the order, time, and place of their creation. Studying the form of the legal documents allows researching them fully, without separating individual clauses from each other.

Abstract: The object of this research is the sources of Russian law. The subject of this research is the elements of the formulation of Russian official documents of the XVII century. The author gives characteristics to the structural constructs of the conditional, abstract, concrete, and individual forms of legal acts. A special attention is given to the specificity of the application of formulary analysis in studying the legal nature of the Russian official documents of the XVII century. The author’s contribution into research of this topic lies in the application of formulary analysis in studying the legal nature of Russian official documents of the XVII century, which allows determining their type, examine their structure and extract information, establish the order, time, and place of their creation. Studying the form of the legal documents allows researching them fully, without separating individual clauses from each other.

Abstract: The subject of the research is the problem of unification of the concept of "sources of Russian law of the XVII century" and their classification. The author studies the correlation between the concepts "source of law", "form of law", and others. The author attempts to review legal documents in historical perspective, the formulation of the definition of sources of domestic law of the XVII century. In order to identify relationships between classes of sources, understand their subordination, orient in their diversity the author provides the criteria for the classification of sources of Russian law of the XVII century.The study is based on the idea that in a formal understanding the sources of Russian law of the XVII century can be divided into two groups: those set by the state and the state-sanctioned. The first group included the sources of law, which came from the state (the czar's decrees, decisions of the Boyar Duma, acts of Zemsky Sobor, etc.) and contained the power prescriptions. The second group formed a system of sources, which had been originally formed by society for maintenance of public order (legal customs, legal practice and doctrines, and others.), and were subsequently sanctioned by the state. The author uses the general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis), and the special scientific methods: the formal-legal method and the comparative legal method. In the result of the study of different approaches to the essence of this concept the author concludes that as "Russian law sources of the XVII century" one should understand the sources of law developed in a certain order by the competent authorities both individually and collectively, and published in the period from 1601 to 1700 in the form of handwritten or printed legal documents imposing the administrative functions on the persons on the territory of Russian state and establishing a certain order in social relations.