ЗАКОН СУДЊИ ЉУДЕМ – НАЈСТАРИЈИ СЛОВЕНСКИ ПРАВНИ СПОМЕНИК
The Law on the Trial of People (Zakon Sudnyi Lyudem) – the Earliest Slavonic Legal Document

Summary/Abstract: The Law on the Trial of People (Zakon sudnyi lyudem) is one of the earliest historical sources of Slavonic law which is believed to have been made in the second half of the 9th century and at the beginning of the 10th century. The original manuscript of this document has not been preserved but there are several transcripts contained in the collection of miscellaneous Russian civil and canonical documents, the oldest of which dates back to the 13th century. This historical legal document primarily comprises penal law provisions but there is also a number of articles on civil law and civil procedure. Although this legal document has been the subject matter of theoretical study ever since the mid-19th century, many of these hypotheses have not yielded the specific answers until the present day. Most legal theoreticians support the hypothesis that this legal document originally comes from Bulgaria, where it was enacted as an official legislative act during the rule of one of the two Bulgarian rulers: either Prince Boris (in the period from 865 to 889 at the latest) or his son Simeon (893-927). The second hypothesis suggests that the origin of this document may be traced back to the rule of the Bulgarian Prince Boris and that it was enacted around the year 885 (at the time when numerous disciples of Cyril and Methodius arrived to Bulgaria from Moravia); however, the supporters of this hypothesis consider that it was not an official legislative act but rather a private collection of laws compiled by an anonymous author. There are two additional (but less prevalent) hypotheses: under the first hypothesis, this legal document was made in Great Moravia and, under the second, it was made in the Byzantine district of Strimon. There is a common agreement among the researchers on the time when it was made (in the second half of the 9th and at the beginning of the 10th century) as well as on its legal content and scope. There is no dispute about the fact that this legal document was modeled upon the 726 Byzantine Code Ecloga. Zakon Sudnyi Lyudem contains 32 articles, only three of which (Articles 1, 2 and 7a) are not based on the Byzantine Ecloga. Only ten of the remaining 29 articles (Articles 11, 14, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25 and 30a) are literal translations of the respective Ecloga articles. The remaining 19 articles are adapted versions of the Ecloga provisions and they contain significant modifications, particularly in respect of penal provisions. In this article, the author suggests the methodology for a further research on this legal document and points out the fact that these modifications are an abundant source of material which should be subject to a more extensive and comprehensive research from the sociological, historical and religious standpoints. The author considers that a general analysis of such an example of partial reception of a foreign law as well as the particular analysis of the contents of these modifications emerging in the process of reception may provide important answers on the specific social reality of early original Slavonic states and ultimately contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon underlying the development of early states in general.

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