medieval studies

The article continues a series of two articles co-authored by Alexei Vovin and Natalya Sredinskaya and focuses on the Roman law reception (in its Latin version) in the North-West of Rus’. There is a core text which is at the center of all forementioned publications. The 89 th article of the Pskov Judicial Charter is very close in textual and semantic terms to the corresponding places in the codes of Theodosius and Justinian. This article develops and substantiates the previously expressed idea that the norm of Justinian’s codification could not penetrate into the Pskov Judicial Charter through later Byzantine law codes, whose translations into Church Slavonic were spread in Old Rus’. Accordingly, the 89 th article source, as well as a number of new notions appearing in Pskov Judicial Charter, were produced as a result of borrowing from an unknown Latin-language source that reflected the realities of the code of Justinian or the earlier code of Theodosius. The article also examines another article of the Pskov Judicial Charter (the 91th), whose origin could be probably found in Theodosian Code as well. The final conclusions lead us to a new glance at the origins of the law of the North-West of Rus’ and the extent to which the Old Russian culture experienced the Roman law reception.