Sobornoye Ulozheniye

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The Sobornoye Ulozheniye (Russian: Соборное уложение) was a legal code promulgated in 1649 by the Zemsky Sobor under Alexis of Russia as a replacement for the Sudebnik of 1497 introduced by Ivan III of Russia, which is based, among others, on the Third Statute of Lithuania. The code survived well into the 19th century (up to 1849), when its articles were revised under the direction of Mikhail Speransky.

The code consolidated Russia's slaves and free peasants into a new serf class and pronounced that class was hereditary and unchangeable (see Russian serfdom). Travel between towns was made forbidden without an internal passport. Russia's nobles (boyars) agreed to serve in the army, but were granted the exclusive privilege of owning serfs.

[edit] The causes of promulgation

As the Time of Troubles ended, a new dynasty government (Romanovs) commenced active law-making.

An intensive growth of the number of edicts ("ukases") since the Sudebnik of 1497 can be seen from the following data:

1550—1600 years — 80 edicts;
1601—1610 − 17;
1611—1620 — 97;
1621—1630 — 90;
1631—1640 — 98;
1641—1648 years — 63 edicts.

Overall, during 1611—1648 years — 348, and during 1550—1648 — 445 edicts. This led to a situation in a Russian state when there existed an immense number of state edicts, which not only were obsolete, but even contradicted each other.

This chaos was contributed to by the scattering of normative acts throughout different state institutes (traditionally new edicts were made on demand of some prikaz, and after their promulgation were attached to an edict book of this prikaz). There was also an absence of coordination in law application: a new article in this book was often known only to the statesmen of the given prikaz.

Also, the casual character of legal rules was becoming non-efficient. The legislators now sought to regulate legal rules, that is, to pass on to a normative interpreting of legal rules.

The Salt Riot, which broke out in Moscow in 1648, also contributed to the promulgation of the Sobornoye Ulozheniye, one of the demands of the rioters being to call the Zemsky Sobor and to make a new legal code. The riot was suppressed, but as one of the concessions to the rioters, czar called Zemsky Sobor, which continued to work until the promulgation of Sobornoye Ulozheniye in 1649.