The purpose of the study is to trace the evolution of the conceptual foundations of the national historical and legal science, to identify the features and promising directions of its development at the present stage. To achieve this goal, the historical and legal method was used, as well as an analysis of modern legal doctrine and the works of legal historians of the past. Archival materials from the fund of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation have been studied. It is emphasized that the pre-revolutionary period is associated with the emergence of the interest of legal scholars in the history of law, with the development of methods for its study, with the research of legal monuments of the past. Serafim Vladimirovich Yushkov's great contribution to the development of historical and legal science in Soviet times is noted. Anthropological and linguistic turns in science are named among the promising directions at the present stage of the development of the history of state and law. It is concluded that the expansion of the methodological basis of modern historical and legal science brings it to a higher level of conceptuality, the new tools expand the cognitive and explanatory potential, and contribute to the increment of historical and legal knowledge.