The Sudebnik of 1497 (''Судебник 1497 года'' in Russian, or Code of Law) was a collection of laws introduced by Ivan III in 1497. It played a big part in the centralisation 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 ...

, creation of the nationwide Russian Law and elimination of feudal fragmentation.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, including Russkaya Pravda, Legal Code of Pskov,

prince A prince is a Monarch, 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 title, hereditary, in s ...

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 f ...

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 Competence may refer to: *Competence (geology), the resistance of a rock against deformation or plastic flow. *Competence (human resources), a standardized requirement for an individual to properly perform a specific job *Competence (law), the me ...

and subordination, and regulated legal fees. ''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, sacrilege, slander). 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 Ca ...

. ''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 a ...

, such as death penalty,

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 landownership, ''Sudebnik'' introduced certain limitations in the law of estate, increased the term of limitation of legal actions 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 s ...

and 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 peasan ...

land boundaries entailed a

fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...

. ''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