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113BRIEF HISTORY OF RUSSIAN SYSTEMATIZATIONS OF LEGISLATION BY WAY OF CODE OF LAWS
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14420/en.2014.1.4
Kamilla Kozinets, a student of the Foreign Regional Study Department in the International Institute of Public Administration and Management of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, e-mail: [email protected].
Abstract. This paper considers the history of systematization of legislation in
Russia by way of code of laws. The author refers to the consecutive stages in the systematization history and describes in details the particular solutions and the work done.The earliest systematization attempts date back to 15th - 16th centuries. The paper contains the research in the codification elements in the Law Books of that time, 1649 Sobornoye Ulozheniye (Council Code), works of Prince N.I. Odoyevsky commission. The second stage is constituted by the systematization of Peter I aimed at collecting the supplements to 1649 Sobornoye Ulozheniye. In the author's opinion, this systematization attempt was not successful. Another significant event in the national systematization periods was the efforts of M.M. Speransky. The paper analyses the outcome of this work, which was the Complete Collection of Laws and the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire. The final stage of systematization concerned herein contains the works of the Soviet Russia and then of the Russian Federation. The author comes to the conclusion of necessity to continue the systematization activities, so far as the law-making process in the last twenty years has been undergoing the intense development stage.
Keywords: systematization, corporation, incorporation, consolidation, Code of
Laws of the RSFSR, 1649 Sobornoye Ulozheniye (Council Code), Complete Collection, M.M. Speransky, N.I. Odoyevsky, Code of Laws of the RF, law-making, legislative proceedings.
Introduction
The problem of systematization of Russian legislation is rather actual currently.
Many statutory acts, often being at odds, are passed in the state, that’s why it is necessary to regularize statutory acts and reduce them to a certain system. That measure is necessary in order to guarantee accessibility of legislation, ease of its use and elimination of obsolete and ineffective rules.
Systematization of legislation in Russia is a process having deep historical roots and divided in several stages.
The issues of systematization have been elaborated deeply enough by national as well as foreign science.
1. First attempts at systematization (15th - 16th centuries)
It is possible to trace elements of codification already in the Law Books of 15th - 16th centuries. Codification was required by rules of judicial proceedings, criminal as well as civil ones. By the time of accession to throne of the Romanov dynasty, there were mess and confusion in legislation. Often statutory acts conflicted and were not known to a wide range of people. It was important in those conditions to create a document which would permit to codify legislation and «unscramble» various legal norms. One can name the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649 passed at the time of the czar Aleksey Mikhaylovich, the first systematized act that embraced significant areas. That document could also be named a symbol of the Russian state getting strong. To develop the draft Ulozheniye, a special commission was created headed by the Prince N.I. Odoyevsky. That document partly replaced obsolete legal acts and left those to which the Ulozheniye gave direct references. It is recognized that separation according to branches of law was hardly teething, but nevertheless it was a positive tendency to further development of system of law and system of legislation.
2. Systematization under Peter I The emperor Peter I thought that all subjects should obey the law and, consequently, they (laws) should be regularized and understandable, that's why he made attempt to create consolidated code. By decree of February 18, 1700, the emperor commanded to collect together all acts published after the Sobornoye Ulozheniye (1649). A special body was created «Chamber on Ulozheniye» (the first one in a succession of bodies created throughout the 17th - 18th centuries with the purpose of regularization of legislation). As envisioned by Peter I, codification should be started with collection of all newly-decreed articles. In 1711, when a Senate was created, it was it that took that issue under control. All newly-decreed articles were to be presented with data: whether they had been changed or were an addition to the Sobornoye Ulozheniye. Work on regularization of legislation proceeded with great difficulties. Under Peter attempts of codification were unrewarded by success, despite a large quantity of commissions which pursued that issue. Not one of them achieved the ultimate purpose that was declared in 1700, - creation of consolidated code.
3. Activities of M.M. Speransky In one of his resolutions Alexander I wrote: «The law should be one for everyone. As long as I let myself offend against laws, who would then consider it their obligation to observe it?» The aspiration to entrench an existing order leads to an idea of systematization of legislation. Alexander I in 1801 established a tenth commission headed by P.V. Zavadovsky. That commission made a good preparatory work, but only Nicholas I could really implement the idea of systematization of legislation.
Codification commission was just reorganized in the 2nd division of the His Majesty’s Own Chancellery. Afterwards, when a Code of Laws was already
prepared, the emperor established seven audit commissions with the aim of checking equivalence of the Code to the then-existing legislation. The check was facilitated by the fact that each article of the Code had a reference to a source - a corresponding act in the Complete Collection of Laws, with date and number. In fact the work on creation of systematic legislation was headed by M.M. Speransky. His idea was to divide that project in stages, and that was done.
In the first place, they set about formation of the Complete Collection of Laws (CCL). It included all statutory materials from the Sobornoye Ulozheniye to the beginning of reign of Nicholas I collected in chronological order. Such acts numbered more than 50 thousand, constituting 46 thick volumes. Later on the CCL was complemented with current legislation. So was created the second Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire, embracing legislation up to 1881, and the third one enclosing laws since the March of that year.
CCL none the less was not quite a complete collection of laws. Some acts were not found by codifiers.
After publishing the Complete Collection of Laws, M.M. Speransky set about the second stage of work - formation of Consolidated Statutes of the Russian Empire. In the course of its compilation, inoperative statutes were excluded, contradictions removed, editorial refinement of texts carried out. Note that already in forming CCL Speransky allowed himself to somewhat edit published laws. During formation of the Consolidated Statutes, M.M. Speransky proceeded from the premise that «the Consolidated Statutes are a true picture of what there is in laws, but they are neither addition of it, nor interpretation». But, in researchers’ judgement, M.M. Speransky on repeated occasions himself formulated new statutes not resting on effective law, especially in the area of civil law.
In the Consolidated Statutes all material was arranged according to a special principle developed by M.M. Speransky. If the CCL follows a chronological principle, then the Consolidated Statutes - already a branch one, though not quite consistently effected.
In the basis of the Consolidated Statutes structure there is a division of law in public and private law, proceeding from West-European concepts which go up to Roman law. M.M. Speransky only named those groups of laws state and civil ones. Working on the Statutes, M.M. Speransky studied the highlights of Western codification - Roman, French, Prussian, Austrian codes, though didn't copy them, but created his own original system.
After publishing the Statutes, Speransky thought to set about the third stage of systematization - forming Code of Laws which had not only to contain old statutes, but also develop law. If CCL and the Statutes were just incorporation, then forming Code of Laws implied codification method of work, that is not only integration of old statutes, but supplement of them with new ones, too.
M.M. Speransky's idea was to bring legislation in line with requirements of life, strengthen autocracy. But his aspirations failed to And support, and the work was suspended at the second stage.
4. Systematization in the Soviet Russia and the Russian Federation
In the USSR the attempts at implementation of integrated systematization went on.
So, for example, on September 2, 1976, the CPSU Central Committee, Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR and Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a regulation «On preparation and publication of the Consolidated Statutes of the USSR».
The design of the Consolidated Statutes included seven sections of legislation:
1) on public and state organization;
2) on social development and culture; social-economic rights of citizens;
3) on rational use and conservation of natural resources;
4) on the national economy;
5) on international relations and foreign economic relations;
6) on national defence and national border control;
7) on justice, procuratorial supervision and law enforcement.
Conduct of the Consolidated Statutes of the USSR and RSFSR died down by the end of the 1980s in connection with turbulent law-making and substantial political changes. In 1995, a shot was tried at revival of systematization of legislation: a Decree of the President of Russia was published «On preparation for publication of the Consolidated Statutes of the Russian Federation». The main task of the Consolidated Statutes had to become perfection and integration of all laws in a unitary source, elimination of contradictions. But it never became implemented up to the present moment.
Conclusion
Systematization of statutory acts is representative of any developed system of legislation, and for the Russian one it is simply necessary because of the country's belonging to Romano-Germanic legal system and corresponding legal traditions. Ever since the adoption of 1993 Constitution, law-making activities in Russia went into overdrive. Adoption of scores of laws, bylaws, plenty of amendments require steady monitoring, that's why at this stage of development of legislation it is hard to make even a simple systematization. So as to regularize statutory acts, it is necessary to take into account historical experience, nuances in legislative sphere of the RF and assure accessibility of that codification to all citizens of the state.
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