The Ancient Rus Legal Culture

Russian legal science has not studied the phenomenon of the ancient Russian legal civilization much. This gap impoverishes historical and legal knowledge about the origins of Russian statehood, originating in the early Middle Ages. In order to eliminate the conceptual vacuum in the issues of the genesis of Kievan Rus, the author scrutinizes the features of the legal culture of the East Slavic state of Rurikovich. The legal consciousness of the ancient Russian people had a syncretic structure, formed in an attempt to synchronize pagan and Christian ideas about law and justice. The uniqueness of the legal life of Kievan Rus consisted in the long-term dominance of private interest in all branches of law. For example, the traditional system of succession to the throne organically grew out of the ideas of collective ownership of the ruling family not only for patrimonial (mainly land) property, but also for sovereign power. The correlation of princely powers with the veche rights of the people in different ancient Russian regions has acquired specific public law features: from the absolute sovereignty of the Veche in Vyatka to autocratic rule in the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. In Kievan Rus, they valued the written law, respected international treaties, customs and judicial decisions. They would chose princes and drew up political and legal agreements with them that strictly defined rights and duties. As judicial evidence, they continued to use the oath, trial by iron and lot, used judicial duel; not only representatives of the nobility were involved in the administration of justice, but also and free community members. Ancient Russian legal values, ideals and the practice of their implementation allow us to talk about the existence of a separate ancient Russian legal civilization.

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