ПРАВОВІДНОСИНИ, СУДОУСТРІЙ, ЗЛОЧИНИ ТА ПОКАРАННЯ НА ЗАПОРОЗЬКІЙ СІЧІ

Abstract

One of the decisive stages of development of the Ukrainian Cossack state is the creation in the second half of the XVI century of its forerunner – a special military-territorial political organization of the Ukrainian Cossacks – the Zaporizhian Sich. This Cossack stronghold, which was not a state in the full sense of this word, had many signs of statehood among which were: the existence of self-developed legal relations of justice, the system of crimes and punishment. These characteristic signs of Zaporizhian Sich are the subject of this article.In the context of this problem, the authors analysed the genesis of legal relations in the Zaporizhian Sich from the time of oral customary Cossack law to the appearance of the first self-written laws. The indicated laws were acted not only within the Zaporizhian Army but also in the territory under the control of Poland. The article also investigates the system of the judicial system in the Sich – from the court of the Palanka’s Colonel (where minor criminal and civil offenses were considered) to the highest court instance – the general Cossack Council, under whose jurisdiction were the most resonant cases. The subject of the authors’ research is also the system of crimes and punishment, which was aimed at the strict observance of the discipline and law and order of the military in the Cossack society.