The article examines the historiography of the activities of conservative liberals (primarily legalists) in the early twentieth century based on scientific works and political practice. A large group of scientists has been formed that has analyzed in detail most of the trends in liberalism and established the main features that characterize Russian reformist (liberation) movements. The purpose of the study is to identify, based on extensive historical, philosophical, legal and political literature, a set of ideas that developed within the liberal jurisprudence of the Russian Empire and to determine the main points of view of modern scientists on the nature of conservative liberalism. A significant part of the works of leading legalists have been published. This simplifies the task of the researcher. The use of many sources (countless articles and monographs by legalists) coupled with modern research allows us to compare different points of view on the essence of the movement and come to common conclusions. The use of the problem-chronological method and the comparison method allows us to conduct a full-fledged scientific analysis. Legalists are understood as an association of liberal dignitaries of the Russian Empire, mainly from the judicial corps, and legal scholars. The ideology of the legalists can be defined as conservative liberalism, and their inspiration was the famous scientists K.D. Kavelin and B.N. Chicherin. A stable group of lawyers was formed, which was vitally interested in the development of legality and law and order in Russia (“people of the legal order”). At the beginning of the 20th century, legalism was in decline and “dissolved” within the new right-liberal trends. Scholars, historians and philosophers carefully analyzed various aspects of the worldview of the right-liberal intelligentsia. It must be noted that despite the great success achieved in clarifying the essence and nature of centrist ideologies in the late empire, modern scientists, for the most part, did not connect them with the legal origin of the main ideologists-scientists. They almost did not consider the legal background of the conservative-liberal ideology of legalism. And they did not strive for this. The study of the views of scientists on the nature of right-wing liberalism allows us to form a new direction of research that will allow, in the long term, to identify the legal nature of the movement and establish a legalistic component in the general liberal stream.