Formation of the foundations of criminal law in medieval Kafa and Budva: a comparative legal study

The article is devoted to highlighting the processes of formation, as well as clarifying and comparing the characteristic features of the complex of legal norms that determined crimes and punishments in the communities of the cities of Budva, located on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, and Kafa (modern Feodosia) on the northern coast of the Black Sea. In the period under consideration, both cities were under the control of the Italian trading republics (Venice and Genoa), which was reflected in the content of local legal monuments and prompts researchers to compare and compare their legal systems. 
It is shown that already in the 12th–13th centuries in the coastal cities located on the territory of the Northern Black Sea and the eastern coast of the Adriatic, separate elements of medieval criminal law were gradually formed, which were partly formed on a local basis, and partly brought here from the legal systems of Genoese and Republic of Venice. The Statute of Budva and the Statute of the Genoese colonies on the Black Sea are valuable sources that allow us to get an idea of ​​the main features of the local criminal law of that time. The first of them was developed earlier, but was influenced by Venetian law after 1443, the second (in the last version) was approved by the government of Genoa on February 28, 1449. 
From the texts of the statutes, it is clear that both in Kafa and Budva, a clear definition of the crime was never developed (and, ultimately, it could not be), but its general understanding covered actions that harmed the state, the urban community, or a specific private person The damage could be physical, moral or material. 
At the same time, it is worth noting that the legal opinion of the time did not yet draw a clear line between the concepts of "crime" and "offence". In practice, they often coincided. Memoranda of law in a number of cases determined the circumstances aggravating the guilt of the criminal. There was a concept of a multiple crime, that is, the concept of a person committing two or more criminal acts, each of which had the characteristics of an independent crime. Already in those days, the perpetration of not one, but two or more criminal acts by a person was considered evidence of the greater danger of criminal activity and resulted in a more severe punishment. 
It is noted that the statutes contain references to several categories of criminal acts. Among them are state (against the urban community) and official crimes, crimes against justice, in the economic sphere, criminal acts directed against the person, against property (property crimes), against religion, against the family and morality. The fact that a whole series of crimes, which were undoubtedly committed at that time, were not provided for by the norms included in the statutes, draws attention. 
It was concluded that over time, criminal law, both in Kafa and Budva, acquires more and more distinct specific features inherent in the local legal system, and becomes noticeably more complex.