Theft, a “Multi-faceted” Crime Against Property

Abstract

Vakhtang Batonishvili's Law Book indicates that theft can be of various sorts and “multi-faceted”. The ancient Georgian law addresses some similar crimes against property, robbery, piracy, and theft. In all three cases, property was appropriated. Unlike robbery and piracy, theft was not an overt act of violence. Following the legal norms of the old Georgian law, different types of theft can be tentatively classified into the basic, qualified, and privileged composition of the crime. Qualified theft was usually tried in the Court of the King and the thief was sentenced to death or facial mutilation. The main component of theft was the punishment in the form of property compensation, which was determined by the value of the stolen item. The annals of law provide information about the manner of compensation of double, triple, five times, or seven times for that which the thief contributed. The payment of seven times was mostly prescribed, from which a double share of the compensation was given to the victim, and the rest to a specific official, or the state, in general. Based on the above, most of the norms on theft in the old Georgian law are aimed at protecting private and public interests. The private interest was satisfied by the transfer of two parts of the payment of seven times to the owner of the thing, while the rest belonged to the state.