Vakhtangov collection of laws

The collection consists of several heterogeneous parts: the laws of Moses, the laws of Greece, the laws of Armenia, the laws of the Catholics, the laws of King George, the laws of Agbugh, the laws of King Vakhtang.

The first part is called the Laws of Moses, it consists of 62 articles and is an extract from the Old Testament Deuteronomy .

The second part, called "Greek Laws," is an extract from Byzantine law (mainly from the Basilica ); it contains 318 articles dealing with subjects of civil, criminal and partly church law.

The third, most extensive part of the collection is “Armenian Laws”, including 431 articles. This part is a translation of the Code of Laws of Mkhitar Gosh , which, in turn, was compiled on the basis of the codes of Theodosius and Justinian , as well as the earliest monuments of Armenian law , for example, the “Canon Girder” of the VIII century ^[1] . It contains Roman decrees on the unlimited power of the father, on spiritual wills, on inheritance and obligations, as well as provisions of criminal law and partly church law. The Georgian translation significantly departs from the Armenian original: in it the system of the arrangement of laws is changed, the articles are abridged or merged in places, thrown out in places, and supplemented in places; the latter circumstance makes Vakhtagnov a compilation a curious source of Armenian history, reporting new, in addition to it, unknown information (for example, about the burial ceremony of the Armenian Catholicos ).

The fourth part contains the " Catholicos Laws" and is divided into 23 articles. These are extracts from the Georgian Nomocanon , compiled in 1605 under the Imereti king George by the Georgian Catholicos Malachi, in view of the unrest that occurred in Imereti; here are the rules on the rights and obligations of bishops and partly criminal laws.

The fifth part, in 46 very brief articles, sets forth the laws of the Georgian Tsar George V the Brilliant (1318–1346), which relate mainly to criminal law. They are a very ancient monument of the Georgian language and law: the court still does not play the role of a “solver of destinies”, it rather plays the role of a mediator.

The civil and criminal laws that make up the sixth part of the collection (178 rather short articles) are of the same nature; they were published by Tsar Samtskhe-Saatabago Bekoy II (1361-1391) and replenished by his grandson Agbughi (1444-1451); and therefore are better known under the name of the Laws of Agbughi.

The seventh part of the collection is composed of civil, criminal and state laws drawn up by Vakhtang himself, mainly based on the ancient customs of Georgia and with the assistance of Catholicos Dementia IV , metropolitans and archbishops, princes, dignitaries and noble people of the country. This is actually the code of King Vakhtang, equipped with two forewords. The first preface sets out the reasons that prompted Tsarevich Vakhtang to compile a collection, which he published "so that no one bends the scales of justice by extortion, kinship, or some kind of addiction." In the second preface, placed between Articles 204 and 205 of the Code (just as in § 6 of the preface to the laws of Moses), the Vakhtang laws themselves are given precedence over the laws contained in other parts of the Vakhtang collection. Introducing into his collection laws of such diverse origins, which inevitably contradict each other, Vakhtang wanted this to increase the importance of his work in the eyes of the people, and also to acquaint the judges of his country with the laws that were in force at different times and among different peoples, and thereby expand their horizons; in part, he acted as a lover of antiquity.

After Georgia’s annexation to Russia in 1801, local courts were given the opportunity to be guided in civil matters by the Georgian customs and the laws of Tsar Vakhtang, and in case of their insufficiency, by the general laws of the empire. At the same time, the Georgian authorities were ordered to collect and notify local customs and laws. As a result, at different times, separate parts of the Vakhtangov collection were translated; its full translation was made under Yermolov and published by the Senate in 1828. In this official publication of the collection of Tsar Vakhtang (without designation of the year and place of printing), the parts are arranged in the following order: 1) the laws of Tsar Vakhtang (267 articles); 2) Greek laws (420 st.); 3) - Armenian (431 articles); 4) - Tsar George (46 st.); 5) - Agbugi (176 st.); 6) - the Moses (52 v.); 7) - Catholicos (23 articles). At the end of the publication are placed "the customs introduced by the Georgian tsars by law" (74 articles) collected by the Russian government.

At the first time, after the introduction of this official translation of the Vakhtangs collection, the Russian judicial practice was extremely diverse, unstable and uncertain: the Russian courts, without explanation about the significance and strength of the diverse parts of this collection, applied them of their choice, completely arbitrarily. This explains the petition for the complete termination of this collection, which came both from the local nobility (1837 and 1839), and from government officials and institutions: from c. Paskevich (1830), from the committee of the Transcaucasian Territory (1840) and others. It was only in the 1840s that the Second Division of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery clarified that the Vakhtang laws and “customs introduced by the law of the Georgian kings” should preferably be applied, while the remaining parts of the collection can only have auxiliary value.

Finally, by the law of October 20, 1859, the action of the Vakhtangov collection in those parts of the Transcaucasian region that were formed from the former in Georgia, Imereti and Guria was canceled, all-Russian laws were extended to them, and instead of that they were introduced in parts I and II of volume Χ of the Code of Laws for these areas additions borrowed from the Vakhtangov collection. By a decree on November 23, 1870, the Vakhtangov collection was terminated and in Mingrelia , which became part of the Kutaisi province , the law was extended to it on October 20, 1859, with the addition of special rules on escheating (note. In article 1162, X, part 1 , ed. 1887).

Subsequently, when the judicial charters of Alexander II were introduced in the region, such additions were available only at 1 p.m. (ed. 1887) and related to the right of entry into the forest (Articles 454, 457 and 462), inheritance law (note. 3 to paragraph 1 of the appendix to article 694; articles 11481, 11531; note and appendix to article 1130; 2 note to article 1315, note to article 1322), levy for plowing foreign land of a bread quitrent, called galls (note to art. 1700) and payments on loans by works of land (note to art. 2013). Nevertheless, on issues of great importance for the region on water possession, the collection of Tsar Vakhtang was of practical importance at a later time, since 2 notes. to 442 Art. t. X. h. 1 it is decided that in Transcaucasia the design, maintenance and use of irrigation canals is determined by local customs operating there. The Vakhtang collection should also be guided in their work by the main and district presences for determining the rights to use water, established by the rules on December 3, 1890; at the end of these works, the collection of Tsar Vakhtang lost its practical significance, but retained considerable scientific interest.

The first official edition of the Russian translation has become a bibliographic rarity; at a later time, it was again published by A. S. Frenkel, edited by D. Z. Bakradze , under the title "Collection of Laws of the Georgian King Vakhtang VI" (Tiflis, 1887) with very valuable additions and notes by the editor, who checked the Russian text with several Georgian manuscripts. The description of the Paris manuscript, which in many ways is similar to the unknown original of the Russian translation, was made by Brosse in the Nouveau journal asiatique (1829) and Annales de Législation et de Jurisprudence (1829, Nos. 32 and 40). Brosse translated the whole manuscript into French, but only part of the Vakhtang laws themselves were printed (in 40 Annales). For the Georgian text of these laws, see D. Chubinov's “Georgian Reader” (Part 1, St. Petersburg, 1846). An early dogmatic study of Georgian laws is presented by the report of the State Secretary of Prince Bagration-Mukhransky, who prepared the law on October 20, 1859 and published in the Legal Review (1886); a review of old jurisprudence was placed in the Caucasian Review of 1887 No. 75.

• Vakhtangov collection of laws // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.