The purpose of this article is to identify the core trends in economic and legal cooperation among the BRICS countries through the prism of strategic documents and normative acts adopted to define national development benchmarks in certain economic sectors. The authors carried out an analysis of strategic and policy documents adopted by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa with a view to developing certain sectors of the national economy. It is pointed out that international cooperation is now considered necessary to achieve sustainable economic growth. The relevance of the research topic is dictated by the need to determine and develop approaches to improve the legal fundamentals of economic cooperation among the BRICS countries, as well as to prepare proposals for their implementation. The analysis of national programs and development priorities of the economies of the BRICS member countries has shown that the programs of Russia and China are the most comprehensive. Brazil’s development priorities, the socio-economic development policy of India and South Africa’s national development plan are primarily aimed at overcoming the problems inherent in these countries. Among the main areas of interest for all of the BRICS countries are agriculture, digital economy, energy, environment, education and health, finances, labour and employment, infrastructure and transportation and trade. Cooperation among the BRICS countries is likely to develop mainly through the exchange of experiences and best practices, joint research and realization of specific economic projects supervised by executive authorities, central banks and other state bodies. An important institution for economic interaction between the BRICS countries is the New Development Bank; other successful mechanisms of economic cooperation include the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, the Energy Research Cooperation Platform and the Partnership on New Industrial Revolution.