The Decree book of the Local Order is the first experience of a Russian legislator of the XVI-XVII centuries in the codification of land law norms (historical and legal analysis)
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Relevance . This article examines a unique monument of Russian medieval law, the Decree Book of the Local Order, which dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries. As a product of the administrative practices of the Moscow Tsardom, the Decree Book of the Local Order provides evidence of the development of Russian land ownership from the publication of the Sudebnik of 1550 to the adoption of the Cathedral Code of 1649. The historiography of the Decree Book of the Local Order is represented by a limited number of works by pre-revolutionary legal historians. In modern studies, the study of this legal monument is extremely narrow and is mostly presented in the context of examining the activities of the order institutions of the Russian state in the 16th and 17th centuries. The relevance of this study lies in conducting a comprehensive analysis of the Decree Book of the Local Order as a historical and legal monument, including an examination of the legal norms governing its regulations. The purpose of this study is to establish the significance and place of the Decree Book of the Local Order in the circle of the main legislative acts of the Russian state in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as to identify the features of the legal acts included in the Decree Book and their historical and legal significance. Objectives : to analyze the significance and place of the Decree Book of the Local Order and its legal acts in the system of legislative acts of the Russian state in the 16th and 17th centuries. Methodology . The methodological basis of the study is represented by general scientific methods of cognition, as well as methods of legal science – the historical-legal method, the formal-legal method, and the comparative-legal method. The results of the scientific research indicate that the laws included in the Decree Book of the Local Order became the sources for the articles in Chapters XVI and XVII of the Cathedral Code of 1649. Conclusions . In general, it can be concluded that for a long period of time, the Ukaznaya Kniga was a kind of ancient Russian codified act of a sectoral nature in the field of legal regulation of land ownership and management of the land fund.
Author: E. V. Zazolina
Institution: Dubna State University
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7147529698