Abstract

The article is devoted to a general overview of the history of the formation of the Orthodox legal tradition. The article discusses the history of the emergence of legal norms and their codification in the ancient Christian Ñhurch, outlines the main stages of its formation and some characteristics of the ecclesiastical legal system. The author pays special attention to the emergence and legitimation of sources of ecclesiastical law. The article identifies three main periods: the Ancient Christian Church, the Church of the period of the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Orthodox Church after the fall of Byzantium. In the early period, a tradition arises which includes the canons of the apostles, the canons of ecumenical councils, the canons of local cathedrals, and the canons of fathers. This order is maintained in the future. «Nomocanon 14 Titles» that was created over 7–9 centuries and received its final codification at the end of the 9th century, is considered as a fundamental legal document of the Eastern Christian Church. Particular attention is paid to the process of perception of the Byzantine legal tradition by the Slavic states. In Kyivskaja Rus’, the first ecclesiastical legal norms arise on the basis of translations from the Bulgarian and Serbian sources. Own Russian legal tradition is formed only in a later period. The area of sources of law can serve as an illustration of the complex relationship between the Greek and Russian branches of the Orthodox Church. The author focuses primarily on the current legal status of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The article discusses in general terms the process of forming the legal norms of the Eastern Christian Church. In the Moskovskoe tsarstvo period, some attempts were made to present the ecclesiastical law as a single legal system, but these attempts did not lead to success. In the later period, the Church limited itself to the systematization of the entire existing heritage. The author characterizes the current legal status of the Orthodox Church as unsatisfactory. The author of the article especially points out that the problems of legal awareness have practically been studied neither for the Byzantine Empire nor for the Russian Empire and modern Ukraine.