The textbook, written in accordance with the course “Theory of State and Law” for law schools, is qualitatively different from previously published books on this discipline. While preserving everything valuable that has been developed in theoretical and legal thought over previous years, the author, at the same time, decisively moves away from vulgarized dogmas and methods, significantly updates and rethinks the issues of the emergence, development and functioning of the state and law. A book dedicated to the modern theory of state and law , contains a number of fundamentally new topics. For the first time, the issues of new state and legal processes in modern Russian society are comprehended and presented at a high theoretical level. Characteristics of civil society are given in its relationship with law and the state. For students, graduate students, teachers and researchers of law schools. 3rd edition.