The authors set the following research goals: 1) to define the concept of free legal aid, taking into consideration the standards of the Council of Europe (especially from the European Convention on Human Rights and soft law standards) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union; 2) to pinpoint solutions in the field of free legal assistance on the example of the analysed countries as Belarus, France, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United United States of America, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden.