The article examines legal developments of the Khanates of Bukhara and Khiva in the first half of the nineteenth century as they reflected by Russian and British travellers who visited these states during the period under review. In these times, the contacts of the European states with Bukhara and Khiva did increase, and the Europeans, mostly Russian and Englishmen, sought for the most complete and relevant information on these states. Travellers who were diplomats, tradesmen, scientists and intelligence officers paid special attention to specific features of legal relations in the Central Asian Khanates. The article offers a reconstruction of principles and regulations for different fields of legal relations in Bukhara and Khiva as they were seen by Western travellers. The author also aims to clarify a degree of conformity of legal realities of Bukhara and Khiva to the basic principles of Islamic law which formally had the leading position in these states.