Formation and Evolution of Domestic Criminal Legislation in the Field of Combating Human Trafficking in the Period of the 10th-17th Centuries

In this paper, the author examines the problems of the formation and evolution of legal regulation of combating the slave trade in Russia in the 10th-17th centuries. The proposed genesis of domestic legal framework for suppressing the slave trade is based on a historical analysis of the existing positive legal experience, which can contribute to a deeper understanding of the main reasons for improving regulatory acts in the field of combating human trafficking. An analysis of the development of domestic legislation regulating liability measures in the field of slave trade shows that the mass emergence and subsequent spread of slavery occurred in the period from the 10th to the 12th centuries, and in the 17th century there was a complete enslavement of the entire mass of the free population. Social inequality, discrimination against the population, rupture and stratification determined social standards associated with the purchase and sale of their own citizens, as well as their further merciless exploitation. The study of the evolution of domestic legislation regulating measures of responsibility in the sphere of slave trade allowed the author to identify two main stages of this process: the first is the entry into force of Article 61 of the Russian Truth, regulating punishment for the slave trade, and the second is from the beginning of the application of Article 9 of the Code of Laws of 1497, which provides for a punishment in the form of death penalty in case of resale of free people into slaves. The work focuses on the fact that in addition to the code of laws of the Russian Tsardom, the acts of the Zemsky Sobors of the period of the estate-representative monarchy also contained norms related to the slave trade. The author concludes that the slave trade in Rus' was actively conducted, and its numerous manifestations are reflected in domestic legal monuments of the analyzed historical stage. In particular, in the historical period under consideration, domestic legislators developed and adopted legal norms that specifically provided for types of responsibility for human trafficking. These legislative provisions were in fact the forerunners of modern legislative norms providing for legal consequences in the area of ​​illegal conversion of people into slaves and the subsequent trade in live goods.