CODIFYING RUSSIAN LAW 323stood in the path of the would-be codifier. Muscovite law had developed
quite "organically". with each piece of legislation or each judicial
decision taking its place within the general pattern of. legal concepts
developed by tradition. But during the 18th century many new norms,
new outlooks, new approaches, and many foreign borrowings were
introduced into the body of Russian legislation. Law was created by
the arbitrary and capricious decisions of the sovereign and of various
government bodies for specific individual cases, without regard to
general concepts, legal tradition, and precedent. As a result, the body
of law which had accumulated since the code of 1649 presented quite
an incoherent and shapeless aspect. 1 The cOOifier had first to become
acquainted with and digest the mass of variegated and disparate legal
material of the 18th century, and only then could he try to distill the
basic norms from it.
These historical circumstances of Russia's legal development precluded,
on the part of the cOOifier, a blank acceptance of all the legislation
and juridical norms that had been created since 1649. Uncritical
acceptance of the existing body of legislation would only have meant
a perpetuation of the confusion and conflicts among contradictory
concepts and principles of various origin. Respect for history and
tradition did not imply, in Speransky's opinion, the complete rejection
of the 18th century belief in natural law. To his mind, the two
attitudes were not so much opposed to each other as they were com-
plementary. He never abandoned a desire to create a new and better,
i.e., more harmonious and clear, system of fundamental legal concepts
that would guide the political and social relationships in Russia. 1I
Unlike his 18th century and Benthamite predecessors, however, and in
contrast to his own approach of 1809, Speransky now felt that the best
way to reach this goal of clarity and harmony was to build on the
nation's history and tradition. The bringing together of all the legisla-
tion issued since 1649 had to be capped by a clear and systematic
formulation of the principles of law.In January 1826, Speransky presented to Nicholas I his conception
of the task of the Second Section. As first goal he set the collection and
publication of all legislation issued since 1649 (including the code of
Tsar Alexis). In the second place, using this collection as a basis, the
Second Section would compose a compendium, or Digest (Svod) of all.L A. N. Filippov, Uchebnik istorii Tusskogo prava, (5th ed., Iur'ev 1914), vol. I,
p.568.
II Korkunov, "Teoreticheskie vozzreniia Speranskogo na pravo." loco cit., passim
who exaggerates the limit of Savigny's influence.