Vladimir S. Gorban

The article examines the problems of historiographic analysis of psychological theories of law, which clearly accompany the evolution of political and legal thought for more than two centuries. Interest in the topic is due to a significant deficit of historiographic literature on the origin, formation and main directions of development of psychological theories of law in the mainstream of political and legal thought of the last two centuries. The existing review and special studies of psychological theories of law in the history of political and legal thought, with rare exceptions, so far only episodically consider psychological approaches to law, not to mention the lack of independent development of the historiography of the psychological direction in the evolution of modern political and legal thought. The solution to this problem is associated with a revision of the attitude to the principles of historiographic work with political and legal teachings of the past and present, improving the quality of coverage of original literature, including in the subject field the relevant historical-philosophical and problem-theoretical reconstructions of general literature, especially valuable for the detailed development of the psychological direction in the evolution of legal thought, studying the genre and plot characteristics of psychological interpretations of law. For the science of the history of political and legal teachings, the refinements and generalizations that are made in the study in connection with the study of the historiography of psychological theories of law can be significant.