The authors of the textbook—leading Russian scientists in the field of state and law of foreign countries—examine in detail the historical processes of development of a complex system of state and legal institutions of the ancient and medieval world. Rejecting the doctrinaire approach to the periodization of human history that previously dominated in Russian literature, they use general philosophical and special (specific historical, comparative legal, systemic, etc.) research methods that make it possible to create a broad historical panorama, where the state and law of the past appear in their valid form, undistorted by ideological prejudices. For students, graduate students and teachers of law universities and faculties.