The Pauline Laws are the house laws of the House of Romanov of the Russian Empire. The name comes from the fact that they were initially established by Emperor Paul I of Russia in 1797.
Paul I established strict order of succession by proclaiming that the eldest son shall inherit the throne. By doing this, Paul insisted on semi-Salic order of succession, in effect excluding women from the line of succession to the Russian Throne. Passing of the throne to the female line was only allowed in the absence of legitimately-born male dynasts.
Over time the house laws were amended, and in late Russian Empire the Russian laws which governed membership in the imperial house, succession to the throne and other dynastic subjects were contained in the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire and the Statute of the Imperial Family (codification of 1906, as amended through 1911). [1]