Canon Law as an Autonomous Legal System: The Contribution of Russian Scholarship of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries to the Development of the Foundations of the Rule of Law, Family Law, and Criminal Law

The article examines the evolution of Orthodox canon law from Byzantine sources to its consolidation within the Russian legal tradition, emphasizing its incorporation into legal education and its normative configuration in the imperial period. It argues that Russian scholars of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries conceptualized canon law as an autonomous legal order, thereby advancing the rule of law, freedom of conscience, notions of culpability and penal aims, and shaping the institutions of marriage and divorce. The study outlines the transformation of the status of ecclesiastical norms in the Soviet era and the subsequent revival in the post-Soviet period, where the field is increasingly interpreted as an internal regulation of religious associations. The paper underscores the relevance of the pre-revolutionary canon-law heritage for strengthening Russia’s legal culture and informing contemporary solutions aligned with national interests.