The article examines the contribution of European (primarily German-speaking) scholars of the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries to the theoretical interpretation of Ruska Pravda as the first systematized source of Ukrainian law and a key element in the formation of early medieval Ukrainian statehood. In accordance with the stated objective – to demonstrate the contribution of European researchers to the theoretical understanding of Ruska Pravda as a compendium of norms of Ukrainian law and to clarify its significance for addressing the historical and theoretical problems of the emergence and evolution of Ukrainian statehood in the legal dimension – the works of August Ludwig Schlözer, Johann Philipp Gustav von Ewers, Ewald Tübien, Leopold Karl Goetz, Dieter Strauch, Günter Baranowski, and other scholars are analyzed. It is noted that their studies emphasize the autochthonous customary origins of the norms of Ruska Pravda, the Kyivan center of its formation, the pre-Christian roots of certain legal institutions, and the integration of this monument into the broader European legal context (particularly in terms of Germanic-Scandinavian influences). The article demonstrates that such interpretations contribute to resolving a number of historical and theoretical issues of Ukrainian statehood, including substantiating the continuity of legal tradition in Ukrainian lands, decolonizing legal-historical heritage, and refuting imperial narratives of the so-called “Old Rus’ nationality”. The methodological framework of the study is based on historical, comparative-legal, and hermeneutic methods. It is concluded that within European scholarly discourse, Ruska Pravda appears not merely as a historical source but also as a theoretical argument in favor of the continuity, distinctiveness, and European character of the Ukrainian state-legal tradition. The study further emphasizes that engagement with the works of European scholars acquires particular significance for affirming Ukraine’s national legal identity in the contemporary European context. It has been argued that the works of European scholars are an important argument in the Ukrainian-Russian dispute over the continuity of the Kyivan Rus’ state and Rus’ law as its primary source of law.

Authored books

1. Baranowski G, Dia “Rysskaja Pravda”  – ein mittelalterliches Rechtsdenkmal (Peter Lang 2005).

2. Ewers G, Das älteste Recht der Russen in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung dargestellt (Dorpat-Hamburg 1826).

3. Ewers G, Kritische Vorarbeiten zur Geschichte der Russen (Dorpat 1814).

4. Goetz L K, Das Russische Recht (Russkaja Pravda) (Stuttgart 1910).

5. Goetz L K, Staat und Kirche in Altrussland: Kiever Periode 988–1240 (Berlin 1908).

6. Riha Th, Readings in Russian Civilization. Vol. 1. Russia before Peter the Great, 900–1700 (2- nd ed, The University of Chicago Press 1969).

7. Strauch D, Mittelalterliches nordisches Recht bis 1500: Eine Quellenkunde (Berlin 2011).

8. von Reutz A, Versuch über die geschichtliche Ausbildung der Russischen Staats- und Rechtsverfassung (Steffenhagen 1829).

9. Lashchenko R, Lektsii po istorii ukrainskoho prava. Chastyna 1: Kniazha doba: I. Literatura. II. Pamiatnyky prava. III. Istoriia derzhavnoho prava (Praha 1923) (in Ukrainian).

Edited books

10. Die Prawda Russkaja, das älteste Rechtsbuch Russlands, nach aller bisher endeckten und herausgegebenen. Handschriften verglichen, verdeutscht und erläutert, durch Dr. jur. E. S. Tobien (Dorpat 1844).

11. Strauch D, ‘Schwedisches Landshchaftsrecht und frühes Recht der Rus. Wirkungen europäischer Rechtsgeschichte’, Festschrift für Karl Kröschell zum 70. Geburtstag (G Kobler, H Nehlsen (hrsg), München 1997) 1294.

12. Pravda Ruska Yaroslava Mudroho: pochatok zakonodavstva Kyivskoi Rusi: navch. posib. (H Demydenko, Kh Yermolaiev (ukl), Pravo 2014) (in Ukrainian).

Journal articles

13. Kohler J, ‘Die Russkaja Prawda und das altslawische Recht’ [1916] 33 Zeitschrift für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft 290.

Encyclopedias

14. Ukrainska mala entsyklopediia: 16 kn.: u 8 t. T. 3, kn. V: Litery K–Kom (Ie Onatskyi, Nakladom Administratury UAPTs v Arhentyni, Buenos-Aires 1959) (in Ukrainian).

Websites

15. Bieber U, ‘Verbrechen und Diabolik in russischen Chronikberichtenhttp’ (Ringvorlesung: Kriminelles Mittelalter, Universität Salzburg) (accessed 27.07.2026).

16. Diakonovъ M, ‘Goetz L. K. Das russische Recht (Русская Правда): 1 er Band: Die älteste Redaktion des russischen Rechtes. Stuttgart, 1910 (krytychna stattia) 7 (accessed 27.07.2026).