Roman law does not work here – this is the shortest way to describe the difference between the West and Russia.
The meaning of the term “Roman law,” now considered the foundation of Western legal culture, has evolved over the centuries. In ancient times, it referred to one of the “national” (then “national”) laws used by the peoples living in the areas subject to the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages, it was seen as a symbol of perfection and an unparalleled example of legal precision. Lawyers recognized the wisdom of the Romans as “written reason” (Latin: ratio scripta), and so they used Emperor Justinian’s codification in the same way that theologians used Holy Scripture. In the modern era, the Ius Romanum served as a reliable instrument used by experts (doctors) and judges. In the 19th century, Roman law was used as the raw material for the development of civil codes in France, Austria, and Germany.
In the 20th century, which painfully paralyzed the collective psyche, Roman law began to play a completely new and previously unknown role. It is perhaps the most important of all the above: Ius Romanum was considered a symbol of just law and contrasted with the legal systems of criminal totalitarianisms – Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. The world immediately realized that under the rule of psychopaths, these countries deviated not from the letter, but from the axiological values of Roman law. However, although in the case of Germany it was a temporary aberration, in the case of Russia it cannot be said that the spirit of Roman law was ever present in the local legislation.
