Rights that sue the Little Russian people

“The rights by which the Little Russian people are judged ” (full name: “The rights by which the Little Russian people are judged, by the Most High All-Eminence, the sovereign of the Great Sovereign Empress Elizabeth Petrovna , the Autocrat of All-Russian, Her Imperial Holy Majesty by command, of three books, namely: The Statute of Lithuania Mirror of Saxony and the two rights attached thereto, also from the book of the Order, for translation from Polish and Latin into the Russian dialect into a single book reduced, in the town of Glukhov, from the summer of Christmas X ristova 1743 ") - a collection of feudal law of the first half of the XVIII century, operating in the Left-Bank Ukraine .

The collection was compiled with the aim of codifying legal norms of various origins that were applied on the Left-Bank Ukraine after its accession to the Russian Empire and often contradicted each other. This collection was also intended to bring these standards closer to Russian legal standards. By imperial decree of August 28 (September 9), 1728 a special codification commission was formed with a seat in Glukhov . Its composition over the years of work on the "Rights" has changed more than once. The commission included Ukrainian legal scholars - representatives of the Ukrainian gentry , the top cossack foreman , and higher clergy who worked on the "Rights" until 1766. Among them - the master of law of the University of Wroclaw Vasily Stefanovich , archpriest Jacob Velichkovsky .

“The rights by which the Little Russian people are judged” in 1743 had a clear structure and consisted of 30 chapters, which were divided into 532 articles and 1607 points. The code contained the norms of administrative, civil, commercial, criminal and procedural law. Due to the high legal technique, “Rights ...” is one of the most valuable monuments of Ukrainian legal culture of the 18th century. Although the Code did not receive official force, the fifteen-year work of Ukrainian lawyers had a positive impact on the further development of Ukrainian jurisprudence. By completeness and clarity of presentation of the norms of law and abstract legal definitions, perfect legal terminology, the Code was more perfect than the existing right-wing books. It studied Ukrainian law and used it as an authoritative legal textbook - a commentary on the Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Magdeburg Law for generations of Ukrainian lawyers.

The sources of the “Rights by which the Little Russian people are sued” were the Lithuanian Statutes , the Helminsky Law , the Saxon Mirror, etc., as well as the Ukrainian customary law and judicial practice, Russian legislation. Codifiers have added a number of new rules. The draft of this collection was submitted to the Senate in 1744, and from there after 12 years it was returned to the commission for revision. However, work on the project was not completed due to the fact that in the second half of the XVIII century, after the abolition of the remnants of the autonomy of Ukraine, all-Russian legislation was extended to it. The collection has 30 sections, consisting of 531 articles, which are divided into 1716 points. Attached is a scheme and a list of ranks of the military and civil administration in Ukraine, an explanation of terms and names.

“The rights by which the Little Russian people are suing” were first published in 1879 under the editorship of Alexander Fedorovich Kistyakovsky from a copy, the original of which was discovered by the Lithuanian Soviet historian V. Raudelyunas.