The Sudebnik of 1497 (''Судебник 1497 года'' in Russian, or

Code of Law A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...

) was a collection of

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

s introduced by

Ivan III Ivan III Vasilyevich (russian: Иван III Васильевич; 22 January 1440 – 27 October 1505), also known as Ivan the Great, was a Grand Prince of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Rus'. Ivan served as the co-ruler and regent for his bl ...

in 1497. It played a big part in the

centralisation Centralisation or centralization (see spelling differences) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, framing strategy and policies become concentrated within a partic ...

of the Russian

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

, creation of the nationwide

Russian Law The primary and fundamental statement of laws in the Russian Federation is the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Hierarchy Constitutionism Adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993 with 54.5% of the vote, the Constitution took ...

and elimination of

feudal fragmentation Feudal fragmentation being a stage in the development of certain feudal states, in which it is split into smaller regional state structures, each characterized by significant autonomy if not outright independence and ruled by a high-ranking noble s ...

.Monuments of Russian Law. Vol. 3: Monuments of Law in the Period of Formation of Russian Centralized State in 14—15 centuries / ed. by Lev Cherepnin. Moscow, 1955. P. 419—420, 426—432, 438—457. (russian
Памятники русского права. М.: Госюриздат, 1955. Вып. 3: Памятники права периода образования Русского централизованного государства XIV—XV вв.
/ под ред. Л.В. Черепнина. С. 341—416. Also full Old Russian text and translation into modern Russian). It took its roots from

Old Russian Law Rus' Law or Old Russian LawKaiser, Daniel H. The growth of the law in Medieval Russia. – Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980. – 308 p. P. 151-209 was a legal system in Kievan Rus' (since the 9th century), in later Old Rus' states (kny ...

, including

Russkaya Pravda The ''Russkaya Pravda'' (Rus' Justice, Rus' Truth, or Russian Justice; orv, Правда роусьскаꙗ, ''Pravda Rusĭskaya'' (13th century, 1280), Правда Руськая, ''Pravda Rus'kaya'' (second half of the 15th century); russian: ...

Legal Code of Pskov The Pskov Judicial Charter (russian: Псковская судная грамота) was an Old Russian legal code of the Pskov Republic. It was issued in various redactions between 1397 and 1467, and was based on certain resolutions of the Pskov ...

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. ...

decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used ...

s, and

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omniprese ...

, the regulations of which had been upgraded with reference to social and economic changes. Basically, ''Sudebnik'' was a collection of

legal procedure Procedural law, adjective law, in some jurisdictions referred to as remedial law, or rules of court, comprises the rules by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil, lawsuit, criminal or administrative proceedings. The rules are ...

s. It established a universal system of the

judicial The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

bodies of the state, defined their competence and subordination, and regulated

legal fees Attorney's fee is a chiefly United States term for compensation for legal services performed by an attorney ( lawyer or law firm) for a client, in or out of court. It may be an hourly, flat-rate or contingent fee. Recent studies suggest that whe ...

. ''Sudebnik'' expanded the range of acts, considered punishable by the standards of

criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

(e.g.,

sedition Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, esta ...

sacrilege Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, site or person. This can take the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things. When the sacrilegious offence is verbal, it is called blasphemy, and when physical ...

slander Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

). It also renewed the concept of different kinds of a

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

. ''Sudebnik'' established the investigative nature of legal proceedings. It provided different kinds of

punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular ac ...

, such as

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

flagellation Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...

etc. In order to protect the

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...

landownership A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, the te ...

, ''Sudebnik'' introduced certain limitations in the

law of estate Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

, increased the term of limitation of

legal action In legal terminology, a complaint is any formal legal document that sets out the facts and legal reasons (see: cause of action) that the filing party or parties (the plaintiff(s)) believes are sufficient to support a claim against the party ...

s with regards to princely lands, introduced flagellation for the violation of

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

boundaries of princely,

boyar A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, Russia, Wallachia and Moldavia, and later Romania, Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Boyars were ...

and

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...

lands - violation of

peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasa ...

land boundaries entailed a fine. ''Sudebnik'' also introduced a fee (''пожилое'', or pozhiloye) for peasants who wanted to leave their feudal lord (''Крестьянский выход'', or Krestiyansky vykhod), and also established a universal day (November 26) across the Russian state for peasants, who wanted to switch their masters (''Юрьев день'', or Yuri's Day).English translation by H. W. Dewey

Notes

{{reflist, 2 1490s in law 1497 in Europe 15th century in the Grand Duchy of Moscow 15th-century manuscripts Cyrillic manuscripts East Slavic manuscripts Legal history of Russia Medieval legal codes

See also

Notes