Abstract: Determining the prospects for the development of the Russian state, identifying patterns of changes in the legal status of the police, developing new approaches to solving fundamental problems of the theory of state and law in modern conditions cannot be carried out without taking into account the theoretical heritage of outstanding Russian lawyers, among whom belongs Eduard Nikolaevich Berendts (1860-1930), whose name was unreasonably forgotten in the Soviet period. The subject of the study is the biography of Eduard Nikolaevich Berendts. A detailed study of the life, teaching, and service in various departments of E.N. Behrendts helped reconstruct the stages of his state-legal views. In particular, the study of Berendts' life in the Republic of Estonia from 1918 to 1930 helped to find the scientist's works, translate them into Russian, evaluate his views and introduce them into scientific circulation.   The novelty of the study lies in the fact that the biography of E. N. Behrendts has not been fully studied by modern scientists. The little-studied scientific and social activities of the scientist even caused some misunderstandings and inaccuracies, attributing to him publications of which he is not the author. The special contribution of the author of the article lies in the fact that he works with the works of Berendts created in the Republic of Estonia in 1920-1930; with acts resulting from the state and public activities of Berendts in the Russian Empire and his participation in legislative activities in the Republic of Estonia; with the materials of Berendts' private correspondence; with the help of work in the Russian The State Historical Archive, the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg, the State Archive of the Yaroslavl Region, the National Archive of the Republic of Estonia, the Department of Archival Documents of the Russian National Library was able to recreate Berendts' biography in detail. This contribution helped to track the dynamics of the development of state-legal ideas and the rich theoretical heritage of E. N. Behrendts.

Abstract: The subject of the study was the updated part of the theoretical and legal heritage of the outstanding Russian lawyer of the late XIX - early XX century, professor, senator of the I Department of the Governing Senate Eduard Nikolaevich Berendts (1860-1930). In this article, the main attention was paid to the memoirs of E. N. Berendts about the work of the Governing Senate in the conditions of the revolutionary transformations of 1917, about the change in the system of public administration, about the transformations in the mechanism of the state in general and the state apparatus in particular, about the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II for himself and for the heir, about the legality of coming to power The Provisional Government. When writing the article, universal, general scientific (primarily systemic, structural and functional, modeling, forecasting methods), special (primarily sociological) and private (primarily formal legal, comparative legal, reconstruction and interpretation of legal ideas) methods were used. The scientific novelty is determined by the absence of comprehensive studies in domestic and foreign legal science devoted to the theoretical legacy of E. N. Berendts. The works of E. N. Berendts, which were not translated into Russian earlier, archival materials, which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, are used. For the first time in historical and legal science, the analysis of E. N. Berendts' views on the role and place of the Governing Senate of the Russian Empire in the mechanism of the state, on the problems of the revolutionary transformations of 1917 and the subsequent changes in the work and functional purpose of the Governing Senate, on the formation and activities of the Provisional Government was carried out

Abstract: The subject of this research is the updated part of theoretical legal heritage of the prominent Russian lawyer of the late XIX – early XX century Eduard Nikolayevich Berendts (1860-1830). Main attention is dedicated to the views of E. N. Berendts upon the nature, meaning, and elements of state, its goals and possibilities of their implementation, as well as problems of transitioning from the police state to legal. The author also turns attention to the essence of the state’s legal nature considered by E. N. Berendts. In analyzing the historical sources and archival documents, the author applied the historical-legal method, which allowed acquiring the knowledge about the events and drawing the corresponding theoretical conclusions. The scientific reconstruction of the past helped comprising a maximally full representation about the problem at hand within the timeframe and space. The portrait-individualizing method combines the chronological and problem-theoretical approaches, which revealed the individual distinctness of the scholar’s views upon the state and law, as well as determine the issues that on one hand connected the life and creative paths of E. N. Berendts, dynamics of the ideological struggle and intellectual creativity with the results, while on the other – manifested as the specific historical milestone of cognition. The scientific novelty is defined by the lack of comprehensive research dedicated to the theoretical heritage of E. N. Berendts within the Russian and foreign juridical science. The author used the previously untranslated into the Russian language works of the scholar and introduces them into the scientific discourse for the first time.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the relevant part of the theoretical-legal heritage of the accomplished Russian legal expert of the late XIX – early XX century, professor of financial law – Eduard NIkolaevich Berendts (1860-1930). Special attention is given to the views of E. N. Berendts upon the police status, place of police within the mechanism of police state, role of the police agencies in the legal state; importance of the Constitution in ensuring and adherence to the legitimacy in the process of realization by the police of its main functions. The scientific novelty is defined by the absence within the Russian and foreign legal science of the comprehensive research dedicated to the theoretical heritage of E. N. Berendts. The author uses the works of the scholar that have not been previously translated into the Russian language, as well as the archive materials originally introduced into the scientific discourse. The work is the first to examine the views of E. N. Berendts upon the role and place of the police in the legal state, importance of the normative consolidation of the powers of police officers, role of the Constitution in regulation of the police activity in legal state.