CODIFYING RUSSIAN LAW 335French, Austrian, and Prussian models. 1 He needed to define legal
concepts and principles which he believed were used in the legislation,
but never clearly defined there. Here again he drew on foreign models.
But these were not the only novelties he introduced. By citing out of
context, by running together several acts, summarizing them, and
providing connecting paragraphs, Speransky actually interpreted the
laws and sometimes even created new norms and concepts.
Jurists and historians of Russian law have as yet not made an ex-
haustive analysis of the Digest. Only a few scattered sections have been
subjected to close scrutiny by scholars at the beginning of this century
(their work was interrupted by the Revolution and never resumed).
Attention has been paid particularly to the 10th volume which contains
the civil law properly speaking (the reason for this concentration on
the 10th volume was that Russian civil law was due for drastic renova-
tion and new codification on the eve of the Revolution). Scholars have
shown that in some sections of the 10th volume (and many sections have
not yet been analysed in full), Speransky introduced a number of new
definitions and concepts which had not existed in Russia previously
and which he obviously had taken over from Pruss ian, French and
Austrian codes. These borrowings are strictly technical in character,
and they do not seem to have a direct bearing on Speransky's political
attitude. He merely felt - and not without justification - that Russian
law lacked these modern concepts. On examination of the studies made
of this aspect of the Digest, it would appear that Speransky was mostly
interested in modernizing Russian law on contracts and property,
presumably as a contribution to the promotion of a modern, "cap-
italistic" economy (which he had been working to develop since the
beginning of his government career). Indirect evidence of this may be
provided by the fact that in the years 1826-1832, i.e., during the
preparation of the Digest, the government - at Speransky's urging -
issued a series of statutes dealing with such questions as wills, govern-
ment contracts, inventory of property, custom dues. 2
1 On the influence of Prussian law and the contributions of Rosenkampf and
the earlier Commission on Laws in this respect, see: L. Kasso, "K istorii svoda
zakonov grazhdanskikh," Zhurnal Ministerstva Iustitsii, (March 1904), pp. 71, 81-84
and the suggestive comments in connection with a specific issue by B. E. Nol'de,
"Zakony osnovnye v russkom prave," Pravo (1913), Nos. 8-9, pp. 447-461 and
524-541.
2 The discussion is based primarily on M. M. Vinaver, "K voprosu ob istochnikakh
X toma Svoda Zakonov," Zhurnal Ministerstva lustitsii, (Oct. 1895), pp. 1-68 and
(June 1897), pp. 87-102. But I disagree with the conclusions drawn by Vinaver
concerning the political implications of Speransky's method; my disagreement derives
from my understanding of the political ideology of Speransky as basically not a
"liberal" one.