Two-faced Janus: On the Nature of Russian Medieval and Early Modern law
Questions of the history of Russian law in the Middle Ages and early Modern occupy not the last place in the works of Russian and foreign historians and jurists. The tradition of considering the evolution of the legal system laid down in the XIX century with an emphasis on the analysis of the norms of written, codified law, remains unchanged to this day at the same time. This phenomenon is connected with the better preservation of sources on the history of written law. At the same time it was established long ago that customary law, legal custom and tradition played a significant role in the life of Russian society at that time. In the article the author puts forward a hypothesis, according to which, at the time under review, Russian law was built on the unity and struggle of two principles - the law of the common, "popular", and the law of the written, "princely". The author proceeds from the fact that customary law during most of this period played a more significant role than written law at the same time. This is explained, according to the author, by the weakness of the government, caused by the imperfection and underdevelopment of the state machine. Under these conditions, the authorities were forced to put up with the existence of customary law and the extremely important role that it played in regulating legal relations in Russian society.