Research On "Ross Code"

In the process of human development it produced a variety of civilizations, ofwhich legal civilization played a relatively important part. Legal civilizationhighlighted the legal condition of a country or region, more importantly it portrayedthe track of the legal system and displayed a relatively intuitional civilization. Russiais an important country in the world, and in the perspective of legal civilization, itsancient legal system is worth further study and research. Among them theestablishment of "Ross Code" is a milestone in the process of legal system in Russia.The formation of the "Ross Code" experienced a long historical process, and itspolitical foundation was the establishment of Kievan Rus. Kievan Rus was the firststate in the history of Russia, which also called Ross. Ross was established from dualcondition of internal condition and foreign invasion, and the "Ross Code" was justbased on the political organization of Ross. The code had diverse sources, includingthe original habits, royal legislation, conference resolution, international treaties andforeign legal system, and comprised the "Yaloslav Code","Yaroslavich Code","Manumach Regulations" and some other regulations. That's to say all parts of thecode were the products of the different historical period, and were amendmented andsupplemented according to the different social environment. So in substantial sense,the "Ross Code" was not a real code, but statutes. Contrasted to the modern writtencode, the "Ross Code" seemed original and rough in style and structure, and theprovisions and layout was in messy disorder and the logic and language style was also relatively simple, but as a whole it was undoubtedly an ancient code.For the Russian state at the time, it needed to have a practice system to guaranteethe functioning of the state and ensured the king's (maharaja) right. The power ofmaharaja along with the progress of the society and the change of environment hadchanged, and its identity turned to the sovereignty from the tribal leaders. Ross had noadministrative management system in early time, but gradually in the central and localhad established a set of management system. Besides it established royal meeting, theconference of authority and the state duma and at the same time built the town andrural organization. What's more Ross also established a rating system to secureprivilege interest and social control.The "Ross Code" was embodiment of the Kievan Rus legal system, and itrecorded abundant content, including criminal, civil, and judicial and litigation in allaspects of the regulations. First of all, it contained the criminal law system includingcrime and punishment. For one thing, the theory of crime was fuzzy, you could onlyget the analysis of the crime, justifiable defense and collective crime from thedescription of some specific provisions. Besides, it also included the crime of harmingthe state power and religious moral nature, but both had no direct embodiment. Foranther, the private nature of the force with blood vengeance, the property of the finelife, gold and damages, exile and confiscation of property were all involved inpunishment, as well as the death penalty which was actually applied though did notmention in the code. Secondly, the "Ross Code" contained the civil legal systems,including marriage and family, inheritance system and property law system. Thoughnot mention in the code, the marriage family rules could be seed from the specificcase at the time. Relative for marriage and family system, inheritance system in thecode had obvious regulations, when the law had stipulated the testamentarysuccession and statutory succession, and adjusted the events of the fact in variousforms and methods. The property law system was another aspect of the civil legalsystem. While the real right system was not perfect, the debt law was much rich,including infringement debt, debt of the contract, both of which set up a set of rules ofcontractual debt. Finally, the "Ross Code" also had specific provisions in judicial and litigation. At that time there were no special judicial organs, but rather variousadministrative institutions, such as royal court judge organization, the court and thevillage church courts. The litigation subjects were not only the individual s also thefamily, and it appeared representative lawsuits. In the course of an action evidenceswas the most essential, so at that time there were a whole set of the evidence in thesystem, including direct statement, the witness's testimony, mysterious adjudicate, andeven the judicial duel. In the process of the proceedings the expenses were alsoinvolved not only for regular fee but also it could bring economic benefits for theruling class.In a sense, it was obvious that Russia has been a country with strongly religiouspersonality. Russia's religious experienced the transformation from polytheism to theOrthodox Church, and formed the double beliefs, which had a great influence in itslegal system. Especially the introduction and the establishment of the EasternOrthodox Church made Ross change its rule way, making use of religion to completeits political purpose. In terms of legal system, the church and its rules acted upon the"Ross code" both in the reform of the common law and the compilation of the code.Overall, as an important code in Russian legal system, the "Ross code" played amain role in the social control and legal system development, and had a significantimpact no matter at that time or for Russian subsequent history stages. Further more,it was the foundation of Russian law, and provided important historical data forresearch. So it make great sense to investigate and research on the "Ross Code", theearliest legal code in Russia.