THE COSSACKS’ COMMON LAW: ON THE INDEPENDENT STATEHOOD ISSUE Erokhin Igor Urievich, PhD in history. <...> Place of employment: Croydon College, London, U.K. E-mail: eiu21@ya.ru Annotation: The article reviews certain elements of the norms of the common law in the life of the Cossack communities. <...> As a result of the study, there were made conclusions on the preservation of the common law norms typical to the ancient Cossack communities at the times of the centralized Russian state. <...> Scientific analysis and synthesis and historical and genetic approach are used as the methodological instruments. <...> The events are reviewed with due regard for their geography, the Cossack mentality, and the situation concerning the law-making principles and the regulations and initiatives of the Russian empire in the pre-revolutionary period. <...> National Archive of Omsk Oblast. – OЧ tСО CШssКМФs’ Escape from the Service. 1866. – Fund 75. <...> State Servants or Rebels and Destroyers? // Conservatism and Traditionalism in the South of Russia: a Collection of Works. – Rostov-on-Don, 2002. – P. 130– 160. 8. <...> Materials for the History of the Don Army: a Collection by the Statistics Committee of Don Army Oblast. – Novocherkassk, 1915. – 3rd Edition. – No. 13. 10. <...> Information on the Don Cossack Communities: Common Law Materials Collected by Mikhail Kharuzin. – Rostovon-Don, Artel, 2010. – 287 pages, illustrated. 12. <...> Leviathan of the Statehood and the Cossacks [Electronic online resource]. http://www.cossack.dom/articles/s/sen_leviafan.htm 15. <...> В качестве методологического инструментария применены методы научного анализа и синтеза, историко-генетический подход. <...>