Main Issues of the Doctrinal Study of the Judicial Code of 1497: Critical Analysis

Abstract

The paper carries out a comprehensive analysis of legal artefacts and law enforcement practice of the period of the Moscow centralized state. In particular, the author suggests his own characteristic of the Law Code of 1497 that is well-known and widely discussed in the historical and legal theory. In this context, the author tries to reconsider approaches and views established in the doctrine concerning the meaning, role, legal force, effect of this act in time, space and personal scope. According to the author, this artefact due to its features and characteristics is a typical charter for that time. The only difference from other normative legal documents is that the Law Code of 1497 was developed with the participation of a wide range of representatives of the princely administration, as stated in the preamble, whereas most of the charters were almost always adopted and approved by the monarch alone. By the nature of the legal technique and the quality of elaboration of certain provisions, the legislative act under consideration represents a draft version of another normative act. Accordingly, it is difficult to say that the Law Code of 1497 as a whole had any influence on law enforcement practice, its unification, formation of the legal system of the Moscow state, and on the further processes of its centralization.