ТЕОРИЯ И ИСТОРИЯ ПРАВА И ГОСУДАРСТВА; ИСТОРИЯ УЧЕНИЙ О ПРАВЕ И ГОСУДАРСТВЕ ON SOME ASPECTS OF METHODOLOGY OF COMPARATIVE LEGAL STUDIES S.B. Zinkovskiy, N.G. Pavlova The Department of Legal Theory and History of Law and State Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia 6, Miklukho-Maklaya st., Moscow, Russia, 117198 The article is devoted to the problems of applicability of different methods of comparative legal research. <...> The authorы prove the dependence of such methods from the nature of the analyzed legal phenomena. <...> The article also points out general rules of comparative legal analysis. <...> Key words: comparative legal studies, methodology, methods, legal system, legal culture, comparability, compatibility, similarity and differences. • Terms and Purposes Comparative law describes the comparison of various legal systems and their elements. <...> Macro- comparison is concerned with entire legal systems; microcomparison deals with specific institutions or specific problems. <...> The actual comparison of legal systems — the discovery, explanation and evaluation of similarities and differences — is only one of several themes of the contemporary Comparative law. <...> A second theme concerns the influence between legal systems, especially the reception of law, whether of individual legal institutions or of entire legal systems. <...> With regard to Europe, this encompasses on the one hand the influence on European private law of different legal systems (Roman law, the law of member states, the law of non-European states). <...> The third theme of Comparative law is the development of a general theory of law. <...> The Comparative law has different purposes: it should inform national lawmaking, assist judges in the resolution of difficult questions, provide a basis for legal unification or harmonisation, or simply increase knowledge and extend awareness, especially in legal education. 10 Вестник РУДН, серия Юридические науки, 2014, № 4 While studying the method of the Comparative law first we should answer at least three questions: why, what and how to compare. <...> So the law should be examined not as a static system but in its permanent development. <...> The other aspect of the problem drives us to the presumption that one and the same text of a legal norm can resolve different social problems, play different social roles and be applied differently in two or more societies <...>