Abstract: The object of this research is the political legal though of the late XIX – early XX centuries; while the subject is the process of formation of the national methodological foundations of the dissertation development of state legal studies over the period of the XIX – early XX centuries in the Russian Empire. Particular attention is given to the mainstream, mental elements and development trends of the national political legal thought, “methodological preferences”, worldview orientations in examination of the political and legal phenomena and processes. The authors considered the master’s and doctoral theses on state law, defended in the law faculties of universities of the Russian Empire, which selected the issues and questions of the methodology of science as the subject of research; using the legal-hermeneutic and comparative-historical methods, were examined the goals, tasks, content, and results of the theses of the indicated timeframe. The work determines the general patterns of genesis and development of the methodological legal studies contained in the pre-revolutionary theses, which were justified by the specificity of evolution of the legal science in Russian in the late XIX – early XX centuries. A conclusion is formulated about the peculiarities of origination of the national methodological grounds of dissertation development of the legal studies in Russia over the indicated timeframe.