Legal support of archives is the key to its success in the modern legal field. Issues of managing archival affairs, including its organizational and legal regulation, areas of its activity, acquire particular relevance at the stage of reforming
the state system. An analysis of the state and development of the legal and methodological framework for the activities of audiovisual archives is a necessary step in determining the overall strategy for its activities at the present stage.
The article outlines the general and differing trends in the improvement of regulatory documents of the activities of audiovisual archives in various historical periods. A wide range of regulatory documents that have influenced the state of many areas of archives functioning is considered. The achieved results are summarized and common problems identified, the solution of which will affect the efficiency of the further development of the legal norms of the activity of audiovisual archives.