The paper is devoted to the survey of past and present of Kharkiv school of civil (private) law. The formation of the school begun in 1804 after the Kharkiv Empire University was established. During more than 100 years Law faculty (originally named as ethics and political division — according to the Statute of University, 1804) operated as a part of the University. Amongst other departments of Law faculty the civil law department functioned. Many prominent scholars worked at the department, especially such as professors I. Timkovskiy, O. Kunitsin, S. Pahman, P. Tsitovich, L. Kasso and others.

The contemporaneity of Kharkiv civil law school is concerned with civil law departments in Yaroslav the Wise National Law University, Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs, Law Faculty at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. The ideas of the school are evolved by scholars who work at those departments and form the current face of the school.