Kievan Rus' law or law of Kievan Rus, also known as old Russian lawKaiser, Daniel H. The Growth of the Law in Medieval Russia . – Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014 . p. 26, 218. or early Russian law,Oswald P. Backus III. Legal Analysis and the History of Early Russian Law . (1972). Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017. was a legal system in Kievan Rus' (since the 9th century), in later Rus' principalities, and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 13th century.Nikolai Maksimeyko Russian Truth and Lithuanian-Russian Law . Kyiv: Type. S. V. Kulzhenko, 1904. 14 p. Its main sources were early Slavic customary law and Zakon Russkiy (Law of Rus'), which was partly recorded in Rus'–Byzantine Treaties. A number of articles have similarities with the Germanic (barbarian) laws, for example, the "Salic law" – a collection of legislative acts of Francia, the oldest text of which dates back to the beginning of the 6th century.Kaiser, Daniel H. The growth of the law in Medieval Russia. – Princeton: Princeton univ. press, 1980. – 308 p. The main written sources were Russkaya Pravda ("Rus' Justice") (since the 11th century) and Statutes of Lithuania (since the 16th century).Memorials of Russian Law. Issue 1–7. – Moscow, 1952–. ()
History
Ryad
According to Old Rus' chronicles, in 862, Slavs and Finns invited Varangians under the leadership of prince Rurik to rule in their land:
Early Rus' state settled on the oral treaty, or "ryad" (Old Rus': рядъ) between the prince (knyaz) with his armed force (druzhina) on the one hand, and tribal "nobility" and formally all people on the other hand. The prince and his druzhina defended people, decide lawsuits, provided trade and built towns. And people paid tribute and took part in irregular military. During the ensuing centuries the ryad was playing an important role in Old Rus' princedoms: the prince and his administration (druzhina) found their relationship with people ("all land", "all townsmen" in Old Rus' chronicles) on the treaty. A breach of the treaty could result in exile of the prince (Izyaslav Yaroslavich and Vsevolod Yaroslavich) or even in murder of the prince (Igor Rurikovich and Igor Olgovich).Melnikova, Elena. Petrukhin, Vladimir. "The Legend of the Varangians Invitation" in comparative historical perspective // 11th All-Union Conference on the Study of History, Economics, Literature and Language of the Scandinavian countries and Finland / ed. by Yuriy Andreev and others. – Moscow, 1989. – Issue 1. – P. 108–110. ().Melnikova, Elena. Ryad in the Legend of the Varangians Invitation and its European and Scandinavian Parallels // Melnikova, Elena. Old Rus' and Scandinavia: Selected Works / ed. by G. Glazyrina and Tatyana Dzhakson. – Moscow, 2011. – С. 249–256. ().Petrukhin, Vladimir. Rus' in the 9–10th centuries. From Varangians Invitation to the Сhoice of Faith / 2nd edition, corrected and supplemented. Moscow, 2014. ).
Written secular law
One of the result of Rus'–Byzantine Wars was conclusion of treaties with the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century, where, apart from Byzantine legal rules, also Zakon Russkiy (Law of Rus') – rules of Old Rus' oral customary law reflected.Zimin, Aleksandr. Pravda Russkaya. – Moscow: Drevlekhranilische ("Archive"), 1999. – 421 p. ().Yushkov, Serafim. Course of the History of State and Law of the USSR. – Moscow: Yurizdat (Juridical Publisher), 1949. – Vol. 1: Social and Political System and Law of Kievan State. – 542 p. (.История отечественного государства и права / Под ред. О. И. Чистякова; Издание 3-е, переработанное и дополненное. М. : МГУ имени М. В. Ломоносова (Moscow State University), 2005. Часть 1. 430 с.
Yaroslav's Pravda of the beginning of the 11th century was the first written law code in Kievan Rus'. This short code regulated the relationship between the princely druzhina ("Rus' people") and the people ("Slovenins") concerning criminal law. After Yaroslav's death, his sons Izyaslav, Vsevolod, Svyatoslav and their druzhina got together and promulgated a code concerning the violation of property rights in princely lands (Pravda of Yaroslav's sons) in the middle of the 11th century. Yaroslav's Pravda and Pravda of Yaroslav's sons became a basis for the Short edition of Russkaya Pravda.Dyakonov, Mikhail. Essays on Social and Political System of Old Rus' / 4th edition, corrected and supplemented. – Saint Petersburg, 1912. – XVI, 489 p. ().
In the period of Vladimir Monomakh's reign at the beginning of the 12th century, the Vast edition of Russkaya Pravda was given, which contained rules of criminal, procedural and civil law, including trade, family law and rules of the bond of obligation.
Later written secular law also included statutory charters, trade treaties, statutes of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, major codes of Muscovy – Sudebniks (see below), and other texts.
Byzantine law and church law
Translations of Byzantine legal codes, including Nomocanon, were widely spread in Kievan Rus' (see: Kormchaia, Merilo Pravednoye),Schapov, Yaroslav. Byzantine and South Slavic Legal Heritage in Rus' at 11–13th centuries / ed. by Lev Cherepnin. – Moscow: Nauka, 1978. – 290 p. (). but it wasn't widely applied in secular or church legal practice, restricted mainly in canon law. The Church in Kievan Rus' did not have wide influence and depended on the power of the state. Thus, church law mainly dealt with family law and sanctions against moral violation.Zhivov, Viktor. The History of Russian Law as a Linguistic and Semiotic Problem // Zhivov, Viktor. Investigations in the Field of History and Prehistory of Rus' Culture. – Moscow: Yazyki Slavyanskoy Kultury ("Languages of Slavic culture"), 2002. – P. 187–305. ().
See also: church statutes of prince Vladimir and prince Yaroslav.
Main sources Main historical sources of Kievan Rus' law:
Oral sources
Customary law: Zakon Russkiy (Law of Rus') in Rus'–Byzantine Treaties.
Written sources
Foreign sources
Byzantine law, including Nomocanon, see Kormchaia Zakon Sudnyi Liudem
Native sources
It was in part a record of oral law and revision of foreign sources:
Rus'–Byzantine Treaties Russkaya Pravda Church Statute of Prince Vladimir Church Statute of Prince Yaroslav Local church statutes Statutory Charters Smolensk Trade Treaty of 1229 Novgorod's Treaties Pravosudiye Mitropolichye Novgorod Judicial Charter of the 15th century Pskov Judicial Charter of 1467 Sudebnik of 1497 Statutes of Lithuania Sudebnik of 1550 Stoglav of 1551 Sudebnik of 1589 Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1607 Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649
Some collections of law
Kormchaia Merilo Pravednoye Collections in supplement of Rus' chronicleComplete Collection of Russian Chronicles: . — СПб.; М, 1843; М., 1989. — Т. 1—38.
In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Kievan Rus' law continued to develop in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Kievan Rus' law of the Principality of Lithuania, or Lithuanian-Rus' law, was closely connected with the preceding Kievan Rus' law, as evidenced by the special closeness of these legal systems.
Sources of law In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus' customary law, the norms of Russkaya Pravda, international treaties and Rus' church law were applied. From the end of the 14th century, monarchs (including the Grand Dukes of Lithuania) issued privileges – special charters, private laws aimed at ensuring the rights of individuals or social groups. There were different land-wide privileges, which operated on the territory of the entire state, regional, given to the inhabitants of any one land (principality, voivodeship, district), volost, city and personal (personal). In 1468, King Casimir IV published the Statut, which is the first attempt to codify the norms of the Rus'-Lithuanian criminal and criminal procedure law.
In the first quarter of the 16th century, large-scale work was carried out to systematize the law of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1529, a set of laws was published in the Ruthenian language – the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (First Statute). The statute contained over 230 articles (articles), systematized in 13 sections. They reflected the norms of state, civil, land, criminal and procedural law. The main sources of the Statute of 1529 were local customary law, charters, the Sudebnik of 1468 and Russkaya Pravda. In 1566, the Second Statute (the second edition of the Statute) was published, consisting of 14 sections and 367 articles and fixing the socio-economic and political changes in the state. In 1588, the Third Statute (the third edition of the Statute) was published, which was in force on the territory of Belarus and Lithuania until 1840.
Branches of law Civil law Ownership. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the legal capacity of the poor landless service gentry was limited. The petty gentry, who served with the pan, could not leave the service without the consent of the master and did not have the opportunity to dispose of the well-earned estate. Dependent peasants did not have the right to acquire land by right of ownership, they could not freely dispose of their real estate. The most limited were the rights of involuntary servants, who could not receive property even by will. The land holdings of the feudal lords were of three types: fatherlands or grandfathers – estates inherited from a father or grandfather; estates bought by the feudal lord himself; estates served, granted for temporary use.
Obligation law. The law established the form and procedure for making transactions, the statute of limitations, the sequence of penalties, etc. Thus, the contract for the sale of estates had to be made in writing in the presence of witnesses and registered in court. When concluding a loan agreement in the amount of more than 10 kops of groszes (A kop was equal to 60 grosz; a grosz is a small piece of silver) the creditor was obliged to obtain a written obligation from the debtor. As security for the loan agreement, the debtor could transfer property to the creditor as a pledge (screen saver). The termination of an obligation occurred in the event of its fulfillment, the expiration of the limitation period, the death of the obligated person, if it was impossible to fulfill it. Limitation periods were provided (with some exceptions): for the recovery of real estate – 10 years, movable – three years.
Inheritance law. According to the law, the heirs of the first stage were the children of the testators and their offspring, born in a legal marriage and not deprived of the right to inherit. The heirs of the second stage are the brothers and sisters of the testator. In the presence of brothers, the daughters of the testators did not inherit the immovable estates of their father. They received one-fourth of the value of the rest of the property, regardless of the number of brothers and sisters. The mother's estate was inherited by them in equal shares with the brothers. After the death of her husband, the wife received no more than one-third of the estate for life, and the husband's children or brothers were the heirs. The dowry of the wife in the event of her death and in the absence of children was returned to her relatives. By will, movable property and estates purchased by the testator himself could be transferred to outsiders. Fathers were to be transferred to heirs according to the law. Dependent people could bequeath to strangers only one third of their movable property. They were obliged to leave two thirds to the children. In the absence of children, these two-thirds were at the disposal of the master. According to the Statute of 1588, the wife could inherit her husband's property, the parents of the testator were included in the number of heirs of the third stage, and other relatives were included in the fourth stage.