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During the times of Kyivan Rus "Ruska Pravda" was considered
to be the most important legal monument ("Pravda" meant the law).
The original of the document has not survived, but there have been
around 300 listings of its later versions. By content three main editions

of "Ruska Pravda" are distinguished:
1) "The Law by Yaroslav" (17 articles were compiled in the first
half of the XI century);

2) "The Law by Yaroslav Family" (26 articles were written in
about 1068);
3) "Ruska Pravda" in the broad editorial (beginning of the XII
century). It arose under the influence of Byzantine and Scandinavian

laws. But it preserves many rules of customary law. It is noteworthy
that punishment for crimes did not provide for death penalty. The
rules of the "Ruska Pravda" were aimed at protecting private property.

Unequal rights were granted to feudal lords and other groups of the
population. At the same time women enjoyed the wide opportunities
in the property sphere.

The “Sudebnyk” of 1468 and the Lithuanian Statutes of
1520,1566, 1588 years were the important legal monuments of the
Lithuanian-Polish period. The first two of these statutes provided the

feudal lords with a wide range of personal and property rights. The
third Lithuanian statute was a classic code of feudal law, governing
the social relations of that time and containing the norms of almost all
branches of law. The norms of the Lithuanian Statutes included the

elements of the customary law of ancient Rus, as well as the principles
of the "Ruska Pravda."
Prominent Ukrainian historian Mykhailo Hrushevskyi called the

Lithuanian Statutes "gentry codes" as they arranged, first and
foremost, the legal status of the nobility and defended their rights and
numerous privileges.
In 1641 the Lithuanian Statute was printed in Vilnius in Polish.

Then, for the first time, the code "Possolita Right" was created – the
only one for the Rech Pospolita, which included Ukraine. This
document also acted in the Ukrainian Cossack state.

The collections of Magdeburg Law were of great importance for
Ukrainian cities. These documents were as the legislative acts in the
cities, exempted from the administration and the court of the feudal

lords. Such cities received the right of local self-government – the

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