This article identifies the main methods of jurisprudence research. Classical and new methodological approaches to understanding the essence and content of jurisprudence and defining existing forms of jurisprudence are analysed. The study of jurisprudence, taking into account classical and new methodological approaches, provides a more accurate understanding of jurisprudence; contributes to a more detailed analysis of the content of jurisprudence; allows for a more grounded identification of forms of jurisprudence. The evolutionary path of jurisprudence is directly linked at each stage to the state system, the economy, the legal culture and the legal consciousness in society. The regulation of social relations is achieved through customs, contracts, judicial precedents, and regulations. However, it is the responsibility of the courts to resolve conflict situations and, after consideration of the dispute, make a decision accordingly. Repeated application by the courts of the norms governing disputed social relations creates uniformity in the dispute resolution process and develops a uniform rule for the application of these norms in a certain disputed situation, i. e. creates jurisprudence. At present, only on the basis of dialectical materialism, using the principles of pluralism of opinion, comprehensiveness and complexity of knowledge, as well as the principles of determinism, correspondence and additionality, applying classical and modern methods of scientific inquiry, can one approach the study of judicial practice in an objective and harmonious way. This will allow to reveal general regularities in the emergence and development of judicial practice, to identify its content, forms, functions, interaction with other legal phenomena, to determine its influence on law-making and law-enforcement, to understand procedures of formation and process of practical application of its results, to develop a unified understanding of the nature of judicial practice.