Steppe Law and Steppe Democracy: Historical Experience, Modernity and Prospects

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2022-4/218-229

Abstract

Research on the political culture of the Eurasian steppe peoples led the author to believe that the original, “pre-­Genghis Khan” political culture of the Eurasian nomads (restored after the collapse of the Genghisid Empire) is closer to European than to Eastern, that steppe pastoralists have developed a kind of steppe democracy, also restored in the post-­Genghisid era. One of the manifestations of this steppe democracy is that some steppe peoples have a court similar to the European jury; thus, Kazakhs have a biy court. Any respected Kazakh who knew the basics of customary law, could be chosen as a biy or a jury for a given trial. Simple cases were solved with one biy, a board of biys, sometimes up to 24 people, was selected for complex cases. At the same time, the original purpose of introducing such a court was to find an alternative to the court of sultans, just as in Europe the jury court replaced the court of lords. Unfortunately, after the Kazakh steppes became part of the Russian Empire, as a result of the illconceived policy of the Russian administration the biy became permanent judges, although they still were elected. This completely negated the positive experience of the biy court. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that the tradition of the latter may still be useful in carrying out democratic reforms in the modern judicial system.