The Historical and Legal Nature of the 1653 Instrument of Government: Issues of Terminology and Constitutional Continuity

The paper challenges two theses established in the field of legal history regarding the 1653 Instrument of Government. The analysis of original 17th–18th century editions proves that the collocation Instrument of Government is not the authentic title of the document, but represents a later (19th century) scholarly addition, thereby casting doubt on the conventional translation tradition. A linguistic-legal analysis demonstrates that the prevailing translation in Russian literature «orudie upravleniya» is semantically flawed and falls under the category of «false friends of the translator». The authors argue for using the terms «Pravitelstvenny akt 1653 goda» or «Uchreditelny akt ob upravlenii gosudarstvom 1653 goda», which reflect the legal meaning of instrument as a legal document. The paper challenges the commonly accepted classification of the act as England's first written constitution. It is shown that this approach is a historical anachronism that disregards the continuity of the British constitutional tradition, which dates back to Magna Carta of 1215. It is proved that the Instrument of Government is a missing link, an extraordinary act that legitimized the military dictatorial regime of the protectorate, which was rejected after the Restoration of 1660, and is not a valid source of British constitutional law. It is suggested that the document should be situated within the framework of the three-level model of the uncodified British constitution as a significant historical artifact that exemplifies a failed endeavor to impose rigid codification, which proved incompatible with the evolutionary character of the British constitutional system.

1. Adams GB. The Origin of English Constitution. London; 1912.

2. Akulenko VV, (ed.). English-Russian and Russian-English dictionary of «false friends of the translator». Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia; 1969. (In Russ.).

3. Alyoshko-Ozhevskaya SS, Ternovskaya IL. Features of the translation of the names of normative legal acts from English into Russian. Vestnik NSU. Seriya «Lingvistika i mezhkul'turnaya kommunikaciya». 2023;21(4):143-155. (In Russ.). DOI: 10/25205.1818-7935-2023-21-4-143-155. (In Russ.).

4. Andrianov AN et al. English-Russian law dictionary = English-Russian legal dictionary. Moscow: Russo Publ.; 2003. (In Russ.).

5. Bagehot W. The English constitution. London; 1927.

6. Bogdanor V. The New British Constitution. Oxford: Hart Publishing; 2009.

7. Chirkin VЕ. Constitutional Law of Foreign Countries. Moscow: Norma Publ.; 2020. (In Russ.).

8. Creasy E. The Rise and Progress of the English Constitution. 1907.

9. Fishel E. The English constitution. London; 1868.

10. Gardiner SR, (ed.). The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution 1625–1660. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1906.

11. Gneist R. The history of the English Constitution. London; 1891.

12. Isaev IA. «A rebellion cannot end in good fortune» (legal foundations of a revolutionary myth). Part 1. Lex russica. 2018;2:9-29. (In Russ.).

13. Kondratev SV. The English Revolution of the 17th century. Moscow: Akademia Publ.; 2010. (In Russ.).

14. Kosikhina SS. The Protectorate Constitution is a «Tool of government» as a model of a specifically army constitution. Evraziyskiy soyuz uchenyh. 2015;3-8(12):21-22. (In Russ.).

15. Kosminsky EA, Levitskiy YaA. The English bourgeois Revolution of the 17th century. Vol. 2. Moscow: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences; 1954. (In Russ.).

16. Krasnov KV. English-Russian dictionary of the «translator's false friends». Moscow: Publishing Community of A. Bogatykh and E. Rakitskoy; 2004. (In Russ.).

17. Lukashevich DA. The subject matter of the history of state and law science. Lex russica. 2025;78(7):109-130. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.17803/1729-5920.2025.224.7.109-130. (In Russ.).

18. Maitland FW. The Constitutional History of England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1908.

19. Martynenko IA, Karandasheva NN. Assimilation of the Term Anti-Suit Injunction in Russian-Language Legal Discourse: Linguistic and Legal Analysis. Vestnik Universiteta imeni O.E. Kutafina (MGUA). 2025;10(134):56-66. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.17803/2311-5998.2025.134.10.056-066. (In Russ.).

20. Osavelyuk AM et al. Constitutional (State) law of foreign countries. Moscow: Norma Publ.; 2023. (In Russ.).

21. The old English constitution, in relation to the hereditary succession of the crown, antecedent to the revolution in 1688. London; 1714.

22. Thompson F. Magna carta; its role in the making of the English Constitution, 1300–1629. New York; 1972.

23. Timonin AN. The Anglo-Saxon model of the state: Towards a discussion on the ideological and theoretical foundations. Lex russica. 2015;9:87-99. (In Russ.).

24. Tomsinov VA. History of State and Law Vol. 2: New time. Modern times. Moscow: Zertsalo-M Publ.; 2011. (In Russ.).

25. White AB. The making of English Constitution. 449–1485. 1908.

26. Woolrych A. Britain in Revolution: 1625–1660. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2007.