RETROSPECTIVE OF THE DYNAMICS OF CRIMINAL LAW ON THE TERRITORY OF UKRAINE: FROM THE NORTHERN BLACK SEA COAST TO KYIVAN RUS (8TH ST. B.C. – 12TH ST. A.D.)

Abstract

The article states that a retrospective review of the dynamics of criminal law in Ukraine allows to demonstrate the presence of specific factors that permanently or temporarily influenced the dynamics of criminal law. It is established that the history of criminal prosecution for crimes on the territory of modern Ukraine dates back to the early state formations of the Northern Black Sea coast. It is proved that it is necessary to count not from the time of historical monuments of central Ukraine, but from the Scythian state (from 7th st. B.C. to 4th st. B.C. a strong tribal union was formed, and in 5th st. B.C. already existed “Scythia”) and Greek colonies, which emerged in the Crimea and on the northern coast during the great Greek colonization (8th st. B.C. – 6th st. B.C.), and some of them eventually became classic Greek polises with their own laws and courts. The available monuments of history and law, which operated on the territory of modern Ukraine since the 8th st. B.C. to the 12th st. A.D., are generalized. The peculiarities of criminal prosecution on the territory of the Northern Black Sea Coast (8th st. B.C. – 2nd st. A.D.) and the changes that took place in the process of building a single state, Kyivan Rus, are considered. The author came to the conclusion that the main factor influencing the unwritten criminal law of the Scythians were the progressive models of the laws of the Greek polis, which served as a stimulating example for the application of orderly responsibility for crimes in the Scythian tribes. During the times of Kyivan Rus, important factors in the dynamics of determining the scope of criminal persecution were revenge ((pre-Christian Kyivan Rus (before 988)), international demands and religious beliefs (baptism of Kyivan Rus (from 988 to Ruska Pravda)), the need for uniform regulation of public relations after the wars for the throne of Kiev (Ruska Pravda (from about 30 years of the 11th st.)).