Abstract: The problem of centralization and formation of a single legislative space in the USSR was one of the directions of maintaining the unity of the Soviet Union state. Even during the creation and the first years of the RSFSR's existence in the first Soviet Federal Republic, this issue was among the priorities in the policy of the RCP (b) and the Soviet state, which considered the "revolutionary codification" of Soviet legalizations as the main means of forming "proletarian legality and law and order". Already the first codes of the RSFSR laid down a steady trend of using the systematization of legislation to create a single regulatory space in the conditions of the Soviet socialist federation. With the creation of the USSR in 1922, the issue of coordinating and ensuring the unity of legislative activity and legislation within the USSR was actualized due to the presence of their own legislation in the Union republics and the need to streamline approaches to legal regulation within the Union and republican legal space. In this regard, the second half of the 1950s was a period of increasing the level of legislative centralization through the use of the Fundamentals of the Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics as an instrument of unification and the creation of single approaches to sectoral legal regulation in the USSR. The scientific novelty of the article is that the analysis of the phenomena under consideration and the main conclusions allow us to talk about a new stage in the creation of sufficiently effective mechanisms to ensure the unity of the legislative space as one of the main elements of the unity of the USSR as a federal state as a whole.

Abstract: The creation of the Code of Laws of the USSR was a new stage in ensuring the unity of the legislative space in the USSR. In accordance with the decisions of the XXV Congress of the CPSU and the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1976), theoretical study was carried out and work was carried out in the period up to 1985 on the publication of the Code of Laws of the USSR. Accordingly, the preparation and publication of codes of laws in the Union Republics began.
The scientific novelty of the article consists in generalizing the available materials and determining the place and role of the Code of Laws of the USSR and the codes of laws of the Union Republics in ensuring one of the main elements in ensuring the unity of the Secular Union State. It is concluded that the Code of Laws of the USSR and the codes of laws of the Union republics in ensuring the unity of the legislative space of the USSR became the final stage in the centralization and coordination of the system of legislation at the level of the Union state and its constituent republics. The codes of laws were not only an important means of maintaining the unity of the legislative space of the country, but also contributed to the development of the legislative system as a whole and its branches – identifying gaps, coordinating the content of union and republican normative legal acts. At the same time, they are the most important source of studying the development of the USSR and Soviet law as a whole.

Abstract: The subject of this research is determination of the place and role of source studies within the structure of the history of political and legal doctrines. The questions of source studies in the indicated legal science have not been previously studied, at best designated as such in works of the thinkers. Further research of the political-legal thought requires elaboration of the theoretical problems of source studies of the history of political and legal doctrines, first and foremost, determination of the initial parameters of the section of source studies of this legal science. The modern development of the theory of source studies in social sciences and humanities creates the prerequisite for its highlight and description. It is also necessary to consider the experience of studying the sources in the history of sociopolitical thought and the history of philosophy, in which the section of source studies of the specified sciences develop dynamically. This article is first within the works on history of political and legal doctrines explores the characteristics of the section of source studies of this science, i.e. its subject, goal, and functions. Emphasis is also placed on the importance of studying sources as the foundation for acquiring new knowledge on the history of political-legal thought, the need to work with the sources and lean on the achievements of other sciences of social-humanistic orientation.

Abstract: The scientific context of studying the historiography of the history of political and legal doctrines is associated with its positioning within the structure of the indicated historical legal science, and represents a challenging problematic that orients the researcher towards understanding the processes of development of this science through the prism of historiography as a reflection of its history. This necessitates to determine the subject field, objectives, tasks, and functions of historiography within the structure of the indicated science, which is the key vector of this research. At the same time, the analysis of these questions leans on universal vision of the development of historiography in the social sciences and humanities. The scientific novelty is defined by the fact that the historiographical problematic in the history of political and legal doctrines is studied insufficiently; therefore, this article is the first attempt to position historiography as a scientific discipline of historical legal trend, and present an original perspective on the topic. Emphasis is placed on examination of the key characteristics of historiography as part of history of political and legal doctrines: subject matter, objectives, tasks, and functions. At the same time, the author relies on the historiographical developments in social sciences and humanities, namely in the historical science, based on which presents an original perspective on the role of historiography as a part of history of political and legal doctrines is.

Abstract: This article presents the original perspective on the fundamental problems of understanding of goal orientations, functional designation, and methodological structure of the historical-legal source studies. Leaning on the general philosophical comprehension of methodology and the approaches towards definition of methodology in the historical source studies and legal science, the author focuses attention of the place, role and peculiarities of methodology as the tool for studying the carries of state legal information. Attention is also given to the overall arrangement of methodological material based on determining the levels as the model of specialized historiographical methodological knowledge. The five levels-subsystems of methodology of studying the carriers of state legal information are described: methodological principles, methodological approaches, specific scientific methods, methods and technique of research. The scientific novelty of this article consists in the fact that its materials are aimed at generalization and systematization of theoretical knowledge of methodology of the historical-legal source studies as a system of knowledge, cognitive coordinated and instrumental foundation for studying the types and varieties of information carries on the history of state and law.

Abstract: This article is dedicated to one of the insufficiently studied problems within the historical-legal source study – the classification of sources on the Russian state and law. The attention is focused on the theoretical approaches towards determining the peculiarities of the sources of knowledge on the state-legal phenomena and institutions in the historical projection. The article provides general characteristics of the types and varieties of the carriers of state-legal information that manifest as the sources of establishment and development of state and law in Russia. Methodology leans on the approaches to classification of sources that established in the historical source study applicable to the specificity of studying the carriers of historical-legal information. The scientific novelty consists in the proposed concept of classification of sources on the history of state and law based on the theoretical approaches of historical source study, applicable to understanding of the nature of government administration and normative regulation. The proposed classificatory scheme is defined by the need of including into the scientific discourse of a broad range of information carriers that allow exceeding the limits of positivist approach within the historical-legal research.

Abstract: The subject field of this research is related to historiographical training of postgraduate law students within the framework of realization of the state educational standards during the period of postgraduate education. Leaning on examination of the traditions of source studies and historiographical training in the Russian higher school of the XIX-XX centuries, the author demonstrates the importance of historiographical training for young scholars, mastering of traditions and experience of scholar schools of the various humanitarian sciences in studying the carriers of state legal information as the basis of scientific research. Special attention is turned to inclusion into the educational process of the process of learning of methodological principles, approaches and methods as the basis for working with the sources for studying state-legal processes and institutions. Emphasis is made on the content of the authorial educational course “Legal Source Studies”, tested in realization of academic programs in the Ural State Law University over the period from 2015 to 2018”. The article demonstrates the arrangement and distribution of materials of the curriculum in accordance with the educational modules, describes the forms of classroom and research work, and defines the performance control mechanism of academic program.

Abstract: This article present the review of S. A. Tokmin’s dissertation dedicated to the complex and little-studied problem of the Russian historical legal science – the place and role of Russian Communist Party-the Communist Party of the Soviet Union-All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the system of the Soviet legal sources. The author of the dissertation made an attempt to conduct a comprehensive examination of the problematics from the perspective of the theory and history of state and law; based on the various methods of studying the legal phenomena, he also explores the party acts as the source of normative-legal information. The highlighted in the dissertation positions represent a scientific interest for understanding the peculiarities of lawmaking in the Soviet period of state-legal development of our country. The author presents his own vision of the party acts in the system of Soviet legal sources, as well as analyzes the correlation between the party regulations with legal, and gives an interesting author’s classification of the party acts.

Abstract: The established within USSR system of administration and regulation of public relations in the Soviet society represented a conglomerate of the Communist Party and the government. The Soviet state acting as a mechanism in realization of ideological and political decisions of the Russian Communist Party-the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks-the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its legislative activity in its foundation was determined by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. At the same time, the Communist Party did not possess official constitutional authorities for decreeing the normative obligatory for the entire population acts, thus was initially using a particular form of legalization of its decisions – joint acts of the Party and the state. This article reveals the place and role of the joint orders of the Party’s Central Committee and the Soviet State of normative legal character as the means of broadcasting into society the politico-ideological decisions of the party, as well as the combined efforts of the party and state apparatus towards the determination and solution of the questions of managing the social, political, and economic processes.
 

Abstract: The creation and activity of the State Defense Committee (SDC) reflected the peculiarities of the state administration in the conditions of the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945 during which the concentration of all the resources were needed to gain the victory. Before the war the country’s system of administration were fully formed, and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks defined the state politics and headed the state administration.  The creation of the SDC in June, 30, 1941 fully reflected this tendency and in the conditions of the war took all the state power as an emergency Party and State authorities. Unclassified archive documents about the SDC activity give new opportunities for studying its activity. The article tells about the characteristic features of creation, structure, directions of activity and a review of materials about the official paperwork of the State Defense Committee. The article characterizes the State Defense Committee, shows the documents about the activity of scientific research, defines the possibilities to use new materials. The latter comes out of the fact that all the documents are unclassified and gives many opportunities for the further studying of the SDC history.

Abstract: The article considers S.S. Alekseev’s juridical ideas and studies his works. The main subject is Alekseev’s understanding of systematization of law. The author studies various notions developed by S.S. Alekseev, such as “codification”, “incorporation”, “consolidation”, etc. The article considers the Alekseev’s classification of varieties of ways and forms of systematization in law, its goals and social function. Alekseev’s approaches to the understanding of essential characteristics, forms, and types of systematization in law serve as a methodological base for this phenomenon study. They allow further studying of this subject both in theoretical and historical-juridical directions. The study of this sphere in the theory of law is of a big application-oriented meaning in the context of reforming and development of the modern Russian legislation. 

Abstract: This article talks about the work of the well-known Russian legal scientist M. M. Speransky. The scientific novelty of this article is in the comprehensive analysis of the conceptual approaches used by M. M. Speransky to define the system and systematization of the Russian law. The work shows the process which formed Speransky’s views on the forms of systematization of legitimation, the stages and results of work. Speransky’s approaches to creating the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire, which are still important to solving modern problems with creating a similar document in modern Russia, are of special significance. The methodology of the analysis of Speransky’s conceptual approaches to the systematization of laws is based on modern methodology for  studying the systematic nature of law. The author defined the general conceptual approaches used by M. M. Speransky to systematize the laws of the Russian Empire. It is noted that they predetermined the key directions and forms of legitimation systematization documents, work plans; based on them, work was carried out to make the Full Collection and Code of Laws of the Russian Empire. The author believes that M. M. Speransky was the first in the Russian legal science to define the theoretical provisions related to the systematization in law. It is said that the work of M. M. Speransky for many decades ahead defined the direction of the development of the Russian law and legal science.

Abstract: The object of studies concerns analysis of genesis of source  studies in the sphere of cognition of development of state and law in Russia in XVIII - early XIX centuries in historical and legal spheres of knowledge. The author shows growing attention to the legal acts among the historians, how they revealed and published legal materials, how they started recognizing legislation as one of the most important sources for studying the past.  The author discusses growing scope of attention to sources of law in the historical projection in practical legal studies, and in the forming legal education and science.  Within the frameworks of historical and comparative approaches the author shows the process of defining place and role of legal acts in the studies of historical and political legal processes in Russia. As a result it may be stated that  the period from XVIII to early XIX century in the process of genesis of source studies in history of state and law of Russia was characterized by recognition of role and value of the sources of law, their active involvement in the scientific turnover in the historical studies. In this period of time there are prominent historical works showing the role of legislation as a historical source and actively revealing and publishing legislative classics.  Due to the underdevelopment of legal education and science the Russian legal studies mostly involved practical approach towards the studies of sources of law, when the studies of sources of legal information served the needs of law-making activities, searching for the ways to organize the legislation, public administration, legal, and especially judicial, practice.  Nevertheless, it was the time of genesis of the scientific historical and legal source studies, which was also related to the genesis of professional legal education and legal studies.

Abstract: The object of studies concerns the Code of the Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire  on the issue of legal provisions regarding the Russian royal family. The authors show place and role of these norms in defining the legal status of the members of the royal family and its value in the relevant institution of the Russian public law.  Special attention is paid to the analysis of the Institution of Imperial Family as an element of the Code of the Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire of 1832-1892. The methodology of studies is based upon the historical and formal legal approaches, showing the normative basis and contents of the Code of the Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire in part of analysis of the legal position of the royal family. The scientific novelty is due to the analysis of the Code of the Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire of 1832-1892 in the sphere of provisions for the legal status of the members of the royal family. Following the European tradition for special "Family Laws" on relations between the monarch and the members of the royal family, and their legal position, the legal status of a royal family was rather clearly defined in the legislation of the Emperor Paul the I (1797). Based upon these provisions the Code of the Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire provided for a special division: Institution on Royal Family.  It provided for a special institution of public law for a royal family, regulating such public law relation as the procedure for acquiring the rights of members of the royal family, establishing family relations as the basis for inheriting the throne, obligations of the Emperor to support rule of law and order in the royal family, obligations of the members of the royal family, and the obligation to be faithful to the ruling Emperor.  The specific features of the family and marriage issues, property and inheritance were also regulated in the Code.

Abstract: The subject sphere of the article is directed on studying of the 1832-1892 Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire in respect of regulation legal bases of a regulation of activity of the Russian supreme power in legislative activity. The fundamental state laws within the Code of laws of the Russian Empire for the first time consolidated and built on the basis of a certain system of a statute from published in the second half of XVII - the first third of the XIX centuries of legal acts which regulated legislative process in the conditions of absolute monarchy. On the basis of historical and legallistic methods the standard and legal basis of the maintenance of statutes of the fundamental state laws is shown. As a result of research a row a conclusion is drawn that the fundamental state laws of the Russian Empire for the first time rather accurately defined statutes concerning one of the main fields of activity of the supreme government, i.e. legislative. In them the principle of legality was enshrined in activity of the device of public administration, also features of the organization of legal space of the Russian Empire decided on allocation and establishment of the principles of interaction of the nation-wide legislation and legalizations of national regions. In the sphere of legislative activity the fundamental laws accurately formulated the fundamental principle of the publication of acts in the conditions of absolute monarchy – an exclusive right of the emperor to the edition of legalizations which didn't limit also the preliminary discussion of bills in the State Council which had consultative character for the monarch. Also provisions of Basic laws in which rules of identification and elimination of gaps and collisions in legalizations were detailed were important.

Abstract: The article shows the provisions in the Basic Laws of the State of 1832-1892 for the main parameters of the Russian positive law. The authors analyze the contents of the Basic Laws regarding consolidation of legal provisions on defining system and types of legislative acts, requirements to the publication of laws, procedures for amendment and the scope of application of norms (temporal, territorial, range of persons). At the sam time the authors analyze the legal sources, providing for the requirements to the positive law in the Basic Laws.  Based upon historical and formal legal methods the authors analyze the sources and contents of the Basic Laws regarding the requirements to legislation. The scientific novelty is due to the fact that the article provides analysis of the Basic State Laws of the Russian Empire of 1832-1892 regarding the parameters of positive law. It is shown that for the first time in the history of the Russian law the legal provisions, which were previously spread in various legal acts, were consolidated and provided as a system of paramters and requirements to the current legislation.

Abstract: The subject of the research is a source study of history of the Russian state and law. The study of history is based on positive and legal sources: legislation, law enforcement practice, documentary materials.  Law historians underestimate the role of sources of personal nature, such as memoirs, diaries, epistolary heritage. Among these sources of historic and juridical information a special place is take by documentary-artistic works that reflect personal impressions of a writer who is a direct participant or an observer of the events described. Regarding this, “The Notes from a Dead House” by F.M. Dostoyevskij is a unique historic evidence which can be viewed as a historical source and a medium of information about the past for a law historian. The subject of the research is to define the basic characteristics of a certain literary work under research as a historic and juridical source for finding out the qualitative characteristics and peculiarities of this information source and also to use the scheme and method of research of a certain literary work for creating a matrix of research work with such kind of sources. The methodology of the research is based on using the methods and techniques of different sciences and consists of relying on their approaches. The methodology of historical source study lets us rely on modern approaches to study the historic information sources of personal nature (within the article limits) (informative, communicative and biographical) in the context of the author’s live and peculiarities of a certain literary work. The scientific novelty of the article consists in the analysis of a certain literary work and to study it as a historic and juridical source of knowledge of the State and law in retrospective projection, attracting the law historians’ attention to the information sources that are out of normative and official documentary acts. Using documentary artistic works for studying politics and law, studying the real functioning of governmental and law institutions reflected in these works, aspiration to understand the difficulty and depth of the processes in the epoch under research and the influence they had on the writer’s personality let widen the limits of History of the State and Law, involve this juridical science in the discussion on the topic of “Literature and Law”.  Methodological approaches and methods of work with documentary artistic works as with historic information media are shown on the example of the certain work of literature. 

Abstract: The main theme of the present research article is the place and role of sources of personal origin in historical studies and legal studies. This is one of the least investigated questions in historical and legal studies. Reflection of one's personality and epoch, events and relations between participants of these events complete historical studies of state and legal phenomena which other carriers of historical information can't do. The author of the present research article focuses on current researches of source studies in different spheres of social studies and appeals to the theory and practice of using sources of personal origin in studying the legal development of the society. Research methodology is based on the analysis of traditional approaches to using personal perception in creating the image of the past. The scientific importance and novelty of the article is that the author discusses the role and place of personal experience as the historical sources in studying state and legal phenomena. The author of the article also analyzes special features of this carrier of historical information from the point of view of using this method in research work conducted by a historian and a lawer. 

Abstract: Inclusion of the Baltic regions into the Muscovy started in 1700 - 1721 during the war with Sweden, and it brought into the Russian legal system a social and territorial area with a complicated system of particular sources of law, reflecting its former inclusion into the Baltic territories of the Livonian Confederation (XIII - XVI centuries), and then into the Swedish Kingdom (Esthland, Livonia). Inclusion of the Kurland into the Russian Empire after the third separation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 completed the inclusion of the Baltic provinces into the Russian Empire.  The various layers of legal information from the former states of the Baltic provinces did not facilitate integration of the local law into the legal system of the Russian Empire, and it was an obstacle to a normal development of legal practice. The measures taken to clarify the local laws both before and after the territories were included into the Russian Empire in XVIII - first quarter of XIX centuries were not successful.  Systematization of local sources of law in 1930 - mid-1940s was an important stage of formation of local law in the Baltic provinces, and in 1845 the first and second part of the Code of Local Laws of the Baltic provinces became an important stage of it as well.  In 1864 the third part of the Code was adopted, and it included civil law provisions of particular law. In 1840-1860 the criminal and procedural legislation of the Baltic provinces was substituted with the Russian legislation. The said issues became the subject of analysis in this article.

Abstract: When the peoples of Caucasia and Transcaucasia were included into the Russian Empire, the Russian government supported local Georgian law in the sphere of its civil law jurisdiction. The Russian government took measures to translate into Russian and sanction the "Georgian law", such as the Code of Prince Vakhtang, which was officially published by the Directing Senate in 1828. General codification of Russian legislation in 1826-1832 and introduction of the Code of Civil Laws moved the local and central administration towards unification of particular and general Empire law.  On October 20, 1859, Tsak Alexander the II had approved the decision of the Caucasian Committee to substitute the Code of Prince Vakhtang with the general laws of the Empire, and the key provisions of Georgian law, which reflected civil laws specificities of the region, were included into the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire.  From that time on the local Georgian law ceased to exist as an independent source, while it was included into general Russian private law regulation. The article concerns the processes regarding use of Georgian local civil law in the regulation of civil law relations in the Caucasus in 1800s - 1850s.

Abstract: Legal nature of the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire of 1832 - 1892 is presented in their features and legal power. The latter reflect peculiarities of the regulatory content of this document about the main grounds of the political system in the Russian Empire. This issue is of particuar interest in terms of the development of the Russian Constitution at the XVIII - early XX centuries, from the first notes and constitutional projects to the first Constitutional Act, the Fundamental Laws published in 1906. The Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire published in 1832 - 1892 play a special role in the process of formation of constitutional ideas. Those Laws opened the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire and set forth the legal grounds of organization of governmental authorities and legislation process under the conditions of absolute monarchy. Their legal nature did not receive adequate attention in historical and legal researches and therefore the main purpose of the preset article is to solve this issue. 

Abstract: The studies of the issues of legislative system and the processes of its formation are not possible, unless one uses historical materials, and its conceptual generalization allows one to find general meaning of this legal matter. Use of the systemic method as a general scientific cognition method for legal and historical studies plays a special role in history of state and law. The system of Russian legislation is no exception to this rule, its retrospective studies allow to understand its nature, key stages and characteristics of its formation reflecting the process of its development and its role in legal regulation. The article concerns formation and development of the system of Russian legislation (positive law) as a process of establishing directions and spheres of legal regulation. Its result was division of legislation and law into branches, which was defined by the second half of XIX century and kept developing since 1917 as the law of the Russian Empire. The author provides characteristics of the main tendencies and periodization of the process of evolvement of the legislative system. The article provides for singling out stages of formation and development of the system of Russian legislation. Based upon the approach of the author, the periodization includes three stages. The first stage (IX - middle of XVII centuries)  was defined by establishing general directions of legal regulation and formation of the system of legislation in Russia with its roots at the formation of statehood and positive law in the Ancient Rus and it is ended by issuing the Council Code of 1649 of Tsar Alexis. The second stage (middle of XVII century - XVIII century) related to defining the spheres and territorial levels of legal regulation and searching for the ways to define the system of the legislation of the Empire.  The third stage (XIX - early XX centuries) became the period of formation of the system of legislation of the Russian Empire, definition of its main branches and levels - the Empire legislation and local laws (those of national regions).

Abstract: Bessarabia was a social and territorial entity within the Russian Empire, where the model of local self government with evident autonomy elements was formed in the Russian state. It influenced the processes of integration of hte Bessarabian law into the system of law of the Russian Empire, and it had two stages of development. On the first stage (1812-1828) the local law in Bessarabia was recognized as an autonomous system of legal norms, and on the second stage (starting from 1828) the legislation was unified in the public law sphere, while the local law remained in the system of civil law, and special laws were passed by the Russian government for this region.  The article concerns the above-mentioned issues.

Abstract: The question of establishment of "radical laws" as the legalizations which defining bases of a political system in Russia and have received the late name "basic laws", was connected with ideology and practice of the state construction and had important political and ideological value in strengthening of the legal bases of the organization of the government in Russia and its legitimation in society. In the conditions of autocracy strengthening in reign of Peter the I in the first quarter of the XVIII century of a basis of a political system there are actually "radical" laws establishing common features of the form of government and the territorial organization of the government, and the current legalizations defining an order of activity of the head of state in the main spheres of realization of the Supreme government. . In the conditions of palace revolutions, lack of accurate legislative mechanisms of ascent on the Russian throne and strengthenings of political influence of favourites of empresses on a course of public affairs the problem of protection of the noble aristocracy from an arbitrariness of the head of state and his immediate environment that raised a question of accurate definition of a legal framework of activity of the monarch became aggravated and found reflection in a number of projects of transformation of political and legal system of Russia (Catherine II, P. I. Shuvalov, N. I. Panin, A. A. Bezborodko). In definition of approaches to creation of radical laws of the Russian Empire the end of XVIII – the first quarter of the XIX century when during works on streamlining of the legislation of the Commission of drawing up laws the problem of allocation of fundamental legalizations was expressed in creation of "The draft of Radical laws of the Russian Empire" G. A. Rozenkampfa (1804) is most important and then in attempt of synthesis of some fundamental legalizations in the section "About Laws in General" within "The systematic set of existing laws of the Russian Empire" (1815) and editions "The bases of Russian law taken from existing laws of the Russian Empire" (1821).In article the specified questions are considered.

Abstract: This article deals with the origins of, the processes of the formation of, the development of, and changes to the laws of the Kingdom of Poland in the period of its existence as an autonomous ethnic territory of the Russian Empire between 1815 and 1917. The authors show how the division of the Polish state between Austria, Prussia and Russia in the second half of the 18th century brought about changes in the laws of the Polish land. The article considers the introduction of French law - the Napoleonic Code (Civil Code) - and the introduction of the Commercial Code to the Duchy of Warsaw, established in 1807 by Napoleon Bonaparte. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the laws of the Kingdom of Poland and the process of their integration into the legal system of the Russian Empire and the changes to the sources of law, such as the Constitutional Charter of 1815 being replaced by the Organic Act of 1832, changes in the civil law, the preparation and publication of the Penal Code in 1847.

Abstract: The Grand Principality of Finland was included into the Russian Empire in 1808, and it became the first social and territorial area in the Russian Empire, which recieved an upheld till early XX century complete localization of state and legal system within the framework of the Russian statehood.  Establishing the boundaries of the Muskovy in XI - XVII century and annexion of part of the Finnish lands of the Swedish Kingdom to Russia in XVIII century posed a problem of legal position of Finns as Russian citizens, and the formation of the Grand Principality of Finland posed a problem of local Finnish law within its system. The article is devoted to integration processes, the authors shows sources and changes in the particular law of this national region within the Russian Empire.

Abstract: The Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire (version of 1832 - 1892) set forth the legal provisions regarding arrangement of the supreme state power. Those Laws quite clearly outlined the principal features of the absolute monarchy as the form of govenment in the Russian Empire. The features include absolute supremacy, sanctity, heredity and dependence of the emperor on the effective legislation. A number of provisions of the Fundamental Laws reflected the empire-like nature of the territorial organization of the state power in Russia and a difficult configuration of relations between the imperial center and individual ethnic communities. The title of the Russian emperor and the Russian coat of arms described in the Fundamental Laws symbolized the scope of authority ofthe governor and borders of teh Russian empire. The Fundamental Laws also determined specific features of the authoritarian state regime which created legal grounds for such institutions as the institution of allegiance. That institution established the legal relation between an individual and state government represented by a monarch as well as the division of the society into estates. The authors of the article analyze the aforesaid issues and problems. 

Abstract: The article is devoted to the local law of national regions of the Russian empire from the point of view of their place and role in politics, ideology and legal practice of the Russian State in the process of formation and development of the Russian empire during the second half of XVII - beginning of XX centuries. The author describes the origins of legal particularism during development of the Russian ancient state institution and law, separation of local sources of law during disunity in Old Russia as well as differentiation between national law and local law during creation of the Moscow State and centralization of the legal regulation. Special attention is paid at the role of local law in politics and ideology of the Russian supreme authority during creation and development of the Russian empire as a complex state and legal unit as well as definitions of models and peculiarities of the legal structure of particular national regions from the point of view of legal autonomy. The author also analyzes legal nature of local law as the phenomenon typical for the empire form of organization of the legal space and provides its definition. 

Abstract: Throughout XVIII - first quarter of XIX centuries the issue of determination and combination of fundamental laws regarding the position of supreme power in Russia was within the sight of the Russian governerns. The issue was finally solved only in 1832 when the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire was passed out. It was solved within the framework of the Fundamental State Laws provisions. However, certain efforts were already put forth towards solving the issue in XVIII and early XIX, especially by the Law Making Commission when it passed the first draft Core Law of the Russian Empire of Gustav Adolf von Rosenkampf in 1804 and defined the basis of legislative activity in the Grounds of Russian Law in 1815. The author of the article describes the first attempts of defining the contents and preparing the draft Fundamental Laws of the Russian Federation by the Law Making Committee in 1790-1820. 

Abstract: Viewing development of state and legal institutions of Russia from the point of view of politics and history allows to understand the place and role of succession and innovations in improving the regulatory system of the modern Russian society. Political and legal context of historical researches in the sphere of state and law becomes very important when we talk about patterns, understanding and applicatin of the political and legal method in studying history of state and law. 

Abstract: Important elements of the Russian government related to state organization and social management, s.s. form of government, state and law structure and state regime, were legally fixed in the first half of XIX century. Legal fixation of the place and role of the subject in estate stratification of the Russian society was used as the main tool of implementation of a political regime and social management in the Russian empire. The author of the article describes the role and meaning of estate stratification of a society in social management of the Russian empire. The author studies the political and legal context of the problem and shows the legal nature of estates as well as systematizatoin of estate legislation as a part of the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire. The author also analyzes the Code of Laws on Conditions of 1832-1857 in terms of the fundamental principles of the legal status of the main groups of estates.