Historical aspect of criminal law representations and the system of protection of rights of the indigenous peoples of the North in the territory of Yamal and Yugra

Abstract

The subject of this research is the traditional representations of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North that reflect the system of punishments and protection of their infringed rights when they commit a crime in a community living by the traditional culture. The article employs the following sources: codes of customary law created in Russia in the XIX century, as well as ethnographic data that include field materials collected by the authors in 2019 – 2020, and published sources that reflect the norms of customary law of the indigenous peoples of the North in the XIX – early XX centuries. The goal of this work consists in revealing the peculiarities of traditional views of the indigenous peoples of the North in the sphere of criminal law relations and protection of the infringed rights. The scientific novelty consists in two aspects: 1) consideration of the so-called “witchcraft component” in analyzing the norms of customary law; 2) use of the General System Theory of L. von Bertalanffy as methodology (synergetic approach). This approach is not usually used for cross-disciplinary historical and legal research; however, allows us understanding the mechanism of transformation of legal norms of the indigenous peoples of the North in the conditions of influence of Russian legislation. The point of bifurcation is the turning periods, when the content of legal views is being changed irrevocably, and the new version is accepted as traditional and consolidated in the customary law. In conclusion, the authors note that in the XIX – early XX centuries, the criminal law representations and mechanism of protection of rights in the traditional culture of the indigenous peoples of the North implied communication with  the spirits and hope for their justice in punishing the criminals. Certain norms of the Russian legislation that are similar to representations of the indigenous peoples of the North, infiltrated into the traditional culture, adapting to the customs; but overall, the criminal legislation of the Russian Empire collided with the views of the aborigines, which entailed the creation of the codes of customary law that were implemented in the judicial practice.