Sources of commercial (business) law in the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the sources (forms) of commercial (business) law in the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century.
The author established that the main source of law in the Russian Empire in general, and commercial (business) law in particular, was a regulatory legal act. There was no clear distinction between a law and a by-law regulatory act, so any act approved and signed by the emperor was considered a law. Types of laws include decrees, statutes, regulations, manifestos, regulations, rules, regulations, and clarifications. However, in the field of trade relations in the Ukrainian lands of the Russian Empire in the first half of the 19th century, legal custom remained valid in a limited form.

Attention is drawn to the fact that the systematization (primarily, incorporation) of the law of the empire, which began in the first half of the 19th century, contributed to the spread of all-Russian legislation in Ukrainian lands. The result of incorporation was the «Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire» (1830), and the result of codification was the «Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire» (1832). The norms of commercial (business) law began, in a certain way, to meet the requirements of the time and reflect the needs of the new bourgeois relations that were formed in the society of that time.
The author concluded that the principle of dominance of state entrepreneurship over private entrepreneurship was established at the state level during the period under study. The state, which established itself as autocratic based on the form of government, directly influenced entrepreneurial activity through administrative supervision and comprehensive regulation, which negatively affected the manifestation of entrepreneurial initiative and innovativeness. In terms of content, the state remained serfdom, therefore, through regulatory acts, state authoritarianism was consolidated, primarily due to the restriction or complete absence of economic freedoms.