The use of emulsions for studying nuclear clustering in light nucleus fragmentation processes at energies higher than 1A GeV is discussed. New results on the topologies of relativistic 7 Li and 10 B nucleus fragmentation in peripheral interactions are given. A program of research of the cluster structure in stable and radioactive nuclei is suggested.Progress achieved in the study with relativistic nucleus beams gives rise to new approaches in solving some topical problems of the nuclear structure. Among them is a search for collective degrees of freedom in which separate groups of nucleons behave like composing clusters. Such a peculiar feature, clustering in excited nuclei, is revealed especially clearly in light nuclei, in which the possible number of cluster configurations is rather small. The natural components of such a picture are few-nucleon systems having no proper nuclear excitations. First of all these are α-particles, as well as pairing proton and neutron states, deuterons, tritons, and 3 He nuclei. Possibly, the study of the decays of stable and radioactive nuclei to cluster fragments might reveal some new particularities of their origin and their role in cosmic-ray nucleosynthesis.In our case the use of nuclear beams of energy above 1A GeV is based on the established phenomenon of limiting fragmentation of nuclei. This implies that the isotopic compound of the fragments of a projectile in a narrow forward angular cone is independent of the type of a target-nucleus and the nature of a reaction. The reaction takes up the shortest time. One of the technical merits is the absence of the energy threshold for detecting a fragmentation process.The most advantageous way for studying clustering is the use of peripheral interactions of relativistic nuclei which occur at a minimal mutual excitations of colliding nuclei caused by electromagnetic and diffractive interactions and the absence of charged meson production. In this case, a clear separation of nuclear fragmentation products according to rapidity is achieved. The requirements of conservation of the electric charge and mass number of a projectile, and narrow angular correlations of relativistic fragments might be employed in the analysis.The reliable and complete observation of the multiparticle relativistic fragmentation processes is a motivation for which we have used nuclear emulsion technique. Emulsions enable us to establish the most feasible charge channels of such processes. Measurements of multiple scattering angles make it possible to determine the total momentum of hydrogen and helium relativistic fragments and thereby to determine their mass. The record angular resolution of emulsions allows one to reconstruct the invariant mass (excitations) of a fragmenting system.