POLISH-GEORGIAN LAW REVIEW 83 UWM 1/2015 Mariam Khoperia Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University The political situation in Georgia in the first half of XIV century and Royal Charter, created at the initiative of George V Introduction The level of Legal thinking clearly indicates the culture of any state of ancient nations, including the Georgian nation. This fact is confirmed by the historical sources of law. The Royal Charter or Laws, created at the initiative of King George V the Brilliant is one of the best examples of high legal thinking in Georgia of late feudal period. Historical situation King George V (12861346) was a son of the Georgian King Demetrius II the Self-sacrificing and the daughter of Beka I Usher, a Prince of Meskheti, a southern princedom of Georgia. In 1289 by the order of the Mongolian Khan, the father of George V, King Demetrius II the Self-sacrificing was beheaded, and young Georges education took his grandfather Beka I. George V was enthroned in 1318. The young king had to take up the governan- ce of the country in most severe conditions: in that period Georgia was politically fragmented, disintegrated into principalities country, which had long lost its inde- pendence, there was no unity of spirit in the country among the people, and the economy was ruined. Energetic and insightful King George V became well aware of the countrys internal and external situation. He understood that the countrys internal unity was the most important condition for the success. Accordingly, shortly after his enthrone- ment he took important measures in order to improve the internal situation; In particular, after three years of fighting he destroyed Ossetians raids in the eastern part of Georgia- Kartli, took Gori and freed it from Ossetians violence; after expul- sion of Ossetians he extinguished the fight arising on the basis of vengeance betwe- en Ksani and Aragvi principalities and united Georgia as a state. 84 Mariam Khoperia King George was well aware of fields of agriculture and the economics. He carried out effective measures to restore the countrys shattered economy; he laun- ched the money reform in order to improve the economic situation: replaced Mongo- lian currency (Kazan Tetri) by the Georgian Tetri, which was named Georges Tetri or Giorgauli. The countrys economy revived due to wisely led strategy. George V was waiting for the suitable moment for getting rid of Mongol yoke, and finally the time came. In the first quarter of XIV century the Mongol dominance seriously weakened. The unrest began in Khanate. George V the Brilliant took an advantage of this, defeated the Mongol army, disposed in Georgia and expelled it from the territory of Georgia. The country was liberated from the Mongolian domi- nation and regained its state independence. Due to the correctly judged and led in favor of the country policy, the people fairly named a wise ruler King George V the Brilliant. He is referred to by this name in the history of Georgia. The reasons for drawing up the monument After agricultural and economic reforms George V carried out a legal reform as well. The fact is that during that period the government in East Georgia Mtiuleti was ruined, local residents refused to obey kings officials and military service; local officials were often attacked and murdered in the region, in which sometimes parti- cipated the entire village, community and Khevi. Not only individuals, but also the whole village and even the armed women were involved in increasing cases of theft and robbery. Also it was common for no reason to leave a wife, kidnap someone elses wife, revenge, vendetta, etc. With the purpose of proper assessment of the situation, King George V with the accompanying delegation toured Mtiuleti, became acquainted with the situation, and was convinced that a great injustice and violence reigned in Mtiuleti. Then the King came to the following conclusion: 1. the old customs were no longer enough for regulation of complicated relations between people; 2. one of the reasons that contri- buted to the frequent cases of above crimes was a lack of laws. Therefore, in order to correct the problem, it was necessary to launch new laws. From the Preface of Laws can be seen that upon returning to Tbilisi, George V the Brilliant specially called the Legislative Assembly Darbazi, which by the Kings invitation was attended by high-ranked church officials, as well as Mtiuleti officials -the Khevi governor and community leaders, as well as Kings officials; and together they issued a book called Royal Charter or body of laws. The main objective of drawing up the Charter was to establish and strengthen the influence of the feudal state in Mtiuleti. The Royal Charter is a particular legislative document of medieval Georgia that was drawn up specifically for residents of the East Georgias mountainous region Mtiuleti. The political situation in Georgia in the first half of XIV century and Royal Charter... 85 In the Preface of the Book of Law as well as in the monument there is several times emphasized the fact that until George V the legislation had not been drawn up for Mtiuleti residents by his predecessor kings. Therefore, the persons involved in the Assembly were deprived of the opportunity to determine the penalties for previo- usly committed crimes. Legislative Assembly members pointed to the lightness of the sentence, which was stipulated by highlanders customary laws for various cri- mes. According to the Royal Charter, the law applied only to those crimes that were committed after the date of launching the law. As for the date of drawing up this legislative monument, it must be said that the exact information on the date cannot be found in either Kartli life or Vakhushti Bagrationis History and Chronicles. The competent Georgian historians believe that this should have happened in the years of 13341335. This view is based on the fact that in 1335 George V the Brilliant was already the holder of the Georgias throne and the scepter; In addition, Ekvtime had taken part in this Legislative Assembly as the Holy Archbishop and Catholicos of Kartli for the last time. From the notice of Vakhushti Bagrationi it can be seen that the Royal Charter was drawn up after 1334. Therefore, this date should be considered as the Royal Charters terminus ante quem non boundary, before which it could not be drawn up, as for terminus ante quem non, i.e., boundary, after which it could not be drawn up, the year of 1335 is considered as such. At present no sufficient material is available to determine the date with more precision. The structure of the monument Law of George V is the legislation of feudal epoch. Like the legislative monu- ments of law of ancient and medieval centuries, the Royal Charter is composed mainly by casuistic principle, i.e. according to the individual case. The Preface of the Book of Law says that the highlanders in Mtiuleti had no charter, or the written law before the King George the Brilliant. Accordingly, the legal relationships betwe- en them were regulated by the customary law. But it should be emphasized that unlike the ancient and medieval legislative monuments, the Royal Charter is based on two sources: on the one hand, customary law, and on the other hand, a legislation as a significant source. This situation is quite natural: in the late feudal period, law is gradually being established among other legal sources, and at the time of absolutism it holds the first place. The monument, consisting of the preface and 45 articles, is mainly the criminal legislation. There are only two articles concerning civil proprietary rights. In the ancient manuscripts of the monument the text is not divided into articles. Apparen- tly, this work was performed by the King Vakhtang VIs (16751737) Legislative Commission, which had carefully studied the text of the monument and divided it into articles by its contents. Acad. Iv. Javakhishvili wrote about this: The Legislative 86 Mariam Khoperia Assembly divided this monument into several main parts, and headed each part by the sentence, designating the start of a new issue according to its contents. Some of the sentences, designating such subheadings, corresponding to one chapter or sec- tion, probably were omitted by the document copyists over time. The sentences, designating new chapters of laws are currently maintained only at the beginning of some articles in the manuscript (Art. 6, 11, 19, 29, 31, 32, 33, 44). In opinion of Acad. Iv. Javakhishvili Initially these laws should have been divided into about 18 parts and each part should have had own introductory sentences. They are pre- sented in the form of a system. Therefore, the Royal Charter is drawn up according to a certain system, by its contents it is divided into several main parts and the relevant issues of the Criminal and Civil Law are set out in each part. It is also noteworthy that other Georgian monuments of law of Beka-Aghbugha, Catholicos and the Law of Vakhtang itself, included into the body of laws by Vakhtang VI is drawn up by this system; accor- ding to the contents, certain issues are arranged in a certain sequence, clearly sho- wing quite developed level of the Georgian legal thinking. As the customary law is one of the sources of the monument, the question arises: What are the institutions introduced by the legislature from the customary law into the articles of Criminal Law of the Book of Law? It should be noted that the legislature used most widely the customs in determi- ning punishments, which is evident from the contents of the law articles.