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On Compensation for Property Damage caused by a Crime in the Customary Law of the Balkars in 1870–1917 (Adapted from Nalchik Mountain Court of Words)


(Kabardino-Balkarian Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

The purpose of the article is to study the procedure and forms for establishing the amount of material compensation for compensation for property damage caused by a crime under the norms of customary law of the Balkarian population of the Nalchik district using the example of the Gorsky verbal court in the last third of the 19th – early 20th centuries. The procedure for determining the amount of property damage in cases of causing wounds and bodily harm, theft of livestock and property, damage (damage) to crops was considered, the activities of the court to determine the jurisdiction of this category of disputes were analyzed, the procedure for determining the final amount of material compensation was established, various forms of resolution of this category of disputes were studied (reconciliation of the parties, decision of mediators, decision of the verbal court). Attention is drawn to
the fact that in most cases the amount of material compensation was equal to the actual value of the losses incurred by the injured party (in cash or in kind). Moreover, the total amount of material compensation included both the actual cost of property damage (the price of lost or damaged things, horses and livestock), and the totality of all losses and costs incurred by the victim (collateral losses, legal costs, fees for the treatment of the wounded, sometimes – the victim's lost profi t). Cases of assigning "double" punishments to off enders have been studied: for causing property damage – material compensation under customary law, for the criminal
act itself – imprisonment under Russian law. It was concluded that despite the widespread use of this sphere of activity of the verbal court had a limited expression, since the jurisdiction of this institution in criminal cases included minor domestic crimes, in civil cases the maximum price of property damage was set, and the norms of customary law were applied in the form in which it did not contradict the current Russian laws.
Nalchik district, Terek region, Nalchik mountain verbal court, Balkars, customary law, property relations, crime

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