The review of the XVIII International Scientific Conference "State and Law: evolution, current state, development prospects (to the 300th anniversary of the Russian Empire)" was held on April 29-30, 2021 at the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Russian Empire existed on the political map of the world from October 22 (November 2), 1721 until the February Revolution and the overthrow of the Monarchy on March 3, 1917. The Russian Empire was the third largest state that ever existed (after the British and Mongolian Empires): It extended to the Arctic Ocean in the north and the Black Sea in the south, to the Baltic Sea in the west and the Pacific Ocean in the east. The Russian Empire was one of the great powers along with Great Britain, France, Prussia (Germany) and Austria-Hungary, and since the second half of the XIX century – also Italy and the United States. The capital of the Russian Empire was St. Petersburg (1721 - 1728), Moscow (1728 - 1732), then again St. Petersburg (1732 - 1917), renamed Petrograd in 1914. Therefore, it is natural that a conference dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the formation of the Russian Empire was held in St. Petersburg, the former imperial capital. The conference was devoted to problems concerning various aspects of the organization and functioning of the state and law, a retrospective analysis of the activities of state bodies in the Russian Empire. The discussion focused on various issues: the character of the Russian Empire as a socio-legal phenomenon and the subject of the legitimate use of state coercion, the development of political and legal thought, the regulatory and legal foundations of the organization and functioning of the Russian state in the XVIII century – at the beginning of the XX century, the characteristics of state bodies as an element of the mechanism of the imperial state in Russia, the organizational and legal bases of the activities of bodies that manage the internal affairs of the Russian Empire, as well as the image of state authorities and officials-representatives of state power.

Contemporaneity represents an epoch of qualitative changes in social life, which creates due grounds for different scenarios of development of the state and law. The concern for the prospects of state/legal organisation of the society has placed the problem of transformation of the state and law in the centre of scientific conceptualisation, made it a subject of heated debate and accounted for the creation of annalistic history. The authors of the article take part in the polylogue on the given subject by formulating their position on the future of the cultural phenomena – the state and the law. The philosophical/legal research is based on the recognition of the fact that the global scientific revolution has in fact become a reality, and there are due grounds for the formation of the post-classical legal science. The complexity and multidimensionality of the subject of the research – the prospects of transformation of a nation state and law in the conditions of contemporaneity – required a resort to interdisciplinary methodology. The accomplished research largely relied on the anthropocentric approach that allowed the authors to focus on a human being and its consciousness, considering that the latter has an ability to adapt to the challenges of globalisation and the development of digital technologies. As a result of the research, the authors came to the conclusion that the modern state is transforming and acquiring new characteristics under the powerful influence of globalisation processes. The claims of scholars who presume that the state will wither in the foreseeable stage of human development were subjected to criticism. The authors believe that the state continues to be the core of social organisation and adapts to the challenges and threats of the modern time by acquiring new characteristics. Transformation takes place as well in the sphere of legal regulation. The law is comprehended not just as a set of norms or daily activity of people aimed to realise these norms. The law is realised to construct the reality; at the same time the law as such becomes an object of influence of social transformation processes following which the content, forms, legal systems, as well as the mechanisms of law development and law enforcement, undergo changes. An important component of changes is transformation of the philosophical core of law reflecting the processes of change in the paradigm of values.

The reform of the police system is an actual problem of any state, because the situation of the police, which is adequate to the realities of state and legal development, is a required condition for ensuring public order and protecting the state system at various historical stages of the country’s development. Mid XIX century for Russia became a time of transformation of all spheres of public life, which required adjustments to the organization and activities of the police. The article is devoted to the analysis of police reform projects of the 1850–1860s. Turning to these storylines makes it possible to see the complexity of preparing and conducting police reform in the context of the fight between a conservative and enlightened bureaucracy, where each group had its own idea of the structure and competence of the police. The reform projects of the Russian police are characterized on the basis of the analysis of archival materials and published documents of office work of state bodies, prepared by the famous writer, a police official M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin; the head of the Zemsky department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Y. A. Soloviev; a commission created by the Main Committee on Peasant Affairs, composed of S. S. Lansky, V. N. Panin, M. N. Muravyev and Y. I. Rostovtsev; Commission on provincial and district institutions led by N. A. Milyutin. It is done the conclusion about the phased implementation of the draft law prepared by the Commission on provincial and district institutions under the leadership of N. A. Milyutin and about the attention of the government to the organization and functioning of the police is a condition for maintaining law and order and an important factor in the sustainable progressive development of the state at each stage its historical development.

The article presents an overview of the reports of the participants of the XIX International Scien-tific and Theoretical Conference “State and Law: evolution, current state, development prospects (to the 100th anniversary of the formation of the USSR)”, which took place on April 28 - 29, 2022 at the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. 313 researchers – scientists and practitioners; 227 young researchers took part in the conference in full-time and part-time format. On April 28, 2022, the scientific meeting was attended by citi-zens of Belarus, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Lithuania, Zimbabwe, Congo; scientists and practitioners of the Russian Federation from 52 cities, 123 educational organizations and organi-zations engaged in practical legal activities). April 29, 2022 the section of young researchers was attended by 227 researchers - citizens of Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Sao Tome and Principe; from 24 Russian cities, 40 educational organizations. 147 speakers presented the results of their research in a face-to-face format. The participants of the conference attached serious importance to issues concerning the nature of the imperial state and the definition of the features of empire in a Soviet-type state; ideas and concepts of the organization of governance in multinational states; problems of the structure of federal states and the specifics of federal relations in the USSR.

At the meeting of the dissertation Council 03.2.008.03, for the defense of dissertations for the degree of Candidate of Sciences, for the degree of Doctor of Science in the scientific specialty 5.1.1. Theoretical and historical legal sciences (legal sciences), created on the basis of the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, on October 4, 2022, the dissertation defense was passed for the degree of Candidate of Legal Sciences A. V. Matveev on the topic «Institute of surveillance in the law enforcement system of the Russian Empire (historical and legal research), led by Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Worker of the Higher School of the Russian Federation N. S. Nizhnik. The Dissertation Council, the meeting of which was chaired by Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation M. V. Bavsun, unanimously decided that A. V. Matveev’s dissertation is a scientific qualification work that is essential for historical and legal science and meets the requirements established by the Regulations on Awarding Academic Degrees, as well as on awarding A. V. Matveev the degree of Candidate of Legal Sciences in the specialty 5.1.1. The article is an analysis of the relevance of the dissertation and the results of the scientific study conducted by A. V. Matveev.