The Alien

Acquisitive Prescription in the Judicial Practice of Imperial Russia in the XIXth Century

Abstract

In early Russian law there is a period of limitation of actions. Acquisitive prescription appeared for the first time in the Statute Book of the Russian Empire in 1832. This institution was transferred to Russian law from the Code Napoléon, but without its prerequisites, namely Legal cause and good faith. The fact of a direct borrowing from the Code Napoléon contradicts the common view of the Russian Statute Book as a systematized version of older Russian legislation. Acquisitive prescription in the Statute Book is a typical example of a legal transplant. It became a very widespread means of acquisition of property belonging to someone else. But the legal consciousness of Russian peasants resisted the application of acquisitive prescription. In consequence it remained problematic in the Russian legal order up to the Revolution of 1917.