The Pattern of Russian Legal Codification in Historical and Comparative Perspectives

Ch. 7. P. 108–118.

Poldnikov D.

Codification is believed to be a unique, hard-won and hard-to-be-defended creation of Western European legal culture. Codes became its major export around the civil-law world and still dominate its legal landscape. Yet, codifications outside major civil law jurisdictions may vary considerably.

This article examines the pattern of Russian legal codification. It built on and resembled the styles of the French and German branch codifications of the 19th century but assumed several unique features, namely codified legislation as a political tool of social modernization; the assistance of legal experts; the formalistic theory of codification; preference for branch codification over the compilation of laws; the predominance of criminal over civil codification.

The article explains these features in Russia’s particular context of a ‘torn country’ and illustrates their persistence despite the ruptures in social order and ideology through the late Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods. Diachronic and synchronic comparison requires, firstly, to outline the context of codification in Europe and in Russia, secondly, to summarize the theory of codification, thirdly, to analyze its practical implementation, with spherical reference to civil and criminal law.

Keywords: Soviet law, Russian law, codification of law, кодификация права, российское уголовное законодательство, civil law reform, советское уголовное законодательство, кодификация, советское гражданское законодательство, criminal law reform

In book

Law Reforms Around the World: Perspectives from National and International Law

Poldnikov D., Li Z., Kyung S. P., Flores Elizondo C., Freire D., Huang H., Ovrawah O. A., Garimella S. R., Iyer V., Stephan P. Abingdon: Routledge, 2023.