The article is devoted to the study of the formal legal method as a separate element of legal methodologyin general and the methodology of comparative studies in particular. Based on the study of doctrinaland practical positions, regarding the content and scope of the formal legal method, it is proposedto combine all existing positions in three approaches: normative, sociological and compromise one.The normative approach comes from the fact that the formal legal approach is the basis for legalmethodology and is its main and most objective guideline. The sociological approach assigns a minorrole to the formal legal method, and considers it biased, if applied to the study of social legal reality.The compromise approach considers the formal legal method important as being one of the main, butimplies the need for methodological pluralism in legal studies. The approach denotes the practical valueof the method. The compromise approach revealed the following characteristics of formal legal methodas universal, composite, based on the relevant legal system, aimed at the study of legal structure andabsolutized legal structures using rules and means of formal logic, as well as the features of ideologicaland legal units. Taking into account the basic characteristics of formal legal method, it is suggested toinclude a system of approaches, principles and techniques of knowledge used in the study of variouscharacteristics of legal categories according to their place in the structure of legal reality, the functionsthey perform, as well as their interaction with other legal phenomena and processes in the conditionswhich maximally exclude the impact caused on research of other factors. The paper argues that theformal legal approach is part of the central core of methodology for comparative legal studies as element of the methodology of general theory of law. The author differentiated the peculiarities of theusage of formal legal method when comparing various state legal phenomena.