Russkaya Pravda as a Primary Source of Unified Civil and Legal Development of Russian State

Abstract

Despite the fact that the scientific debate was conducted on almost all issues relating to the Russkaya Pravda, this article firstly considers Russkaya Pravda as an act of ancient law, which laid the foundation for the implementation of legal integration through the method of unification. Unification of legal regulations is an important prerequisite for the formation and development of the legislation. Therefore the process of creation and use of first codified act of ancient law – Russkaya Pravda in the jurisdictional activity of the Russian state deserves special attention. This code marked the first attempt to form single legal space of Russia as the regulatory framework of the desired socio-economic integration within the boundaries of the Kievan Rus, and therefore was a landmark novelty which defined the historical patterns and future trends of legal development in long-term perspective that have not lost their relevance today. By the end of the 9th century Old Russian state brings together more than 20 tribes and occupies a vast territory from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea, from the Western Bug River to the Volga River. In order to eliminate conflicts between customary law in disparate lands of the Russian state, regulating the same matter of fact attitude, Yaroslav authorized and issued a uniform system of common law, which has become mandatory for all its inhabitants, and over all its territory. The author concludes that Russkaya Pravda which united the single norms and common rules governing the Ancient Rus, served as the basis of formation of a unified legal development, striving for the integration of multi-ethnic Russian state in the 9th century.