Prominent Ukrainian jurist Mykola Oleksiiovych Maksymeiko (to the 150th anniversary of his birth)

Abstract

The article provides an overview and description of the life and career of the prominent Ukrainian jurist professorM.O. Maksymeyko, an attempt is made to highlight the key issues of his creative heritage in the context of the development of historicaland legal science. On the basis of the analysis of multifaceted scientific-teaching, public, educational activity of M.O. Maksymeyko theKyiv, Kharkiv and academic periods are singled out and analyzed.Thus, the first «Kyiv period» of the scholar is a period of study of Lithuanian-Russian or Western Russian law, on the basis ofwhich he argued his own position on the law of Western, and actually Ukrainian, clearly distinguishing the law of North-Eastern Russia(1). Moscow Sudebniki, in the Code of 1649; the law of Lithuanian Russia, the best embodiment of which is the Lithuanian Statute (2);the law of the North-Western region, codified in the Deeds of Novgorod and Pskov (3). He defined the historical development ofUkrainian law as: Ukrainian law – the law of Cossack Ukraine, which through the Lithuanian Statute is associated with the RussianPravda.The «Kharkiv Period» is a period of establishing a research methodology, including a declaration of commitment to the comparativelaw method, a generalization of the course of historical and legal development, and the creation of a series of works devoted toRusskaya Pravda. «Comparative Study of the History of Law» (1898) became a bestseller and put it together with M.M. Kovalevsky,F.V. Taranovsky in the forefront of comparative jurists. M.O. Maksimeyko’s «Lectures on the History of Russian State Law» were ofstage importance in creating a holistic picture of historical and legal development. A special place in the creative heritage.M.O. Maksimeyko occupy the study of ancient n law. In the series of works of the scientist about the Russian Truth originalauthor’s hypotheses about its system, sources, authorship, etc. are expressed and proved. The «academic period» is a generalization forProfessor Maksymeyko’s Ukrainian studies. Among them are works on substantiation of the role and place of the Ukrainian languagein the rule of law, ways of its codification and attention to the cultural and historical context in the study of law. ProfessorMaksymeyko’s scientific worldview is defined as positivist, the methodological basis of his studies was the historical-comparativemethod with elements of sociology and evolutionism, which gives in particular grounds for its belonging to a modified historical schoolof law. It is stated that the multifaceted scientific heritage of Maksymeyko is in active scientific circulation, which is due to the highscientific level of his research.