Foundation for Criminal Law in Antique States of the North Black Sea
Foundation for Criminal Law in Antique States of the North Black Sea

Summary/Abstract: The article reveals peculiarities of the foundation of criminal law in the antique states of the North Black Sea region, on the basis of monuments of law, narratives and other sources. It is emphasized that the basic elements of criminal law came to Chersonese, Olbia, Pantikapaeum and other polises mainly from the legal system of the Athenian state through the metropolises – Heraclea Pontic and Miletus. Attention is paid to the common features and features of the system of crimes and punishments in the North Black Sea polises and the Greek metropolis. The authors believe that the formation and strengthening of the foundations of ancient criminal law was accompanied by the parallel development of its philosophical and attitudinal reasoning. It is concluded that already in the second half of the 1st millennium BC the North Black Sea polises had a complex and extensive system of notions of crime and punishment. Attention is drawn to the fact that the concepts of “crime” and “offense” were not distinguished in legal opinion at that time. Punishments in the North Black Sea city-states were understood as measures of state coercion against the offender, which were the result of the offense. The purpose of punishment was the desire to exclude in advance the commission of acts undesirable for the state and citizens. Thus, the understanding of crime, the system of crime and punishment in the North Black Sea polises largely coincided with those existing in other Hellenic states, although there were some differences due to local specificity.

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