Сorrelation of sources of law in the princely era of Old Rus

Rominskyi Ye. «Ryad», «Ustav», «Zakon» and «Zvychay»: correlation of sources of law in the princely era of Old Rus

Exploring the sources of law of a particular historical era should begin with a general description of the worldview of this era and directly of the perceptions of law in this era. Attention is drawn to the features of medieval Christian view of the world as one large community-flock that by God’s will is divided into a number of smaller communities and countries, each with their secular and spiritual leaders appointed ≪by God≫. These leaders were given legislative function, just as the source of Christian law is God himself. But this view was closer to the ≪ideal model≫ of society. In the real Middle Ages Christianity spread among the peoples of Europe at the stage where they have had a long political and legal history, especially concerning the more Northern and Eastern Europe, which embraced Christianity much later.Regarding the sources of law it has received expression in the parallel existence of secular and church law, as well as in division of the law in ≪lex≫, ie laws that came from secular and religious leaders and ≪customs≫ which evolved from the rules of the ancient law and the regulations formed in society.
Based on the foregoing, the author analyzes the legal monuments of Kievan Rus in order to assign them to certain sources of law. The main subjects of the research were the Old Rus legal terms and concepts. Through analysis of the principles of the use the conclusions were made about the prevalence of certain terms, their family and category correlations. Accordingly, the conclusions about the nature of certain types of sources of law and the relationship between them were drawn. Some attention was paid to the issue of legislative function of secular and religious rulers. Also, the problem of balance of secular and religious laws,as well as the special features of perception of legal custom in the princely era of Old Rus were reflected in the article.
At the end the general conclusion is drawn that in cases where the sources are talking about legislative activities of government, we find only two legislators: the prince and the church. The confrontation of custom and law typical for most of Christian Europe does not find its reflection in the sources of Kievan Rus. It is necessary to say that ≪Zvychay≫ and ≪Ryad≫ and ≪Sud≫ and ≪Rukopycannya≫ and ≪Urok≫ and sometimes ≪Zakon≫ – these all are ≪Ustav≫ at the same time. It should also be emphasized that there is an exclusive interpenetration of secular and ecclesiastical (by origin) legal material, which has attracted the attention of researchers of ≪Kormchiye knigi≫, ≪Miryla Pravednogo≫ and similar legal compilations of church or secular origin and designation for centuries.
Key words: history of state and law, medieval law, secular law, ecclesiastical law, sources of law, law, legal custom, law-making treaty.