ABSTRACT
Customs and traditions, which have always been at the centre of the Chechen way of life, are enshrined in nokhchalla, the code of conduct and system of ethics that regulated Chechen society for centuries. It is the tome defining the norms of personal and social behaviour, the law according to which judicial councils pronounced their decisions. Nokhchalla derives from ‘Nokhcho’ (‘Chechen’), with a state-expressing suffix, and can be rendered as Chechenness-the quality of being a Chechen. Although it was updated and developed at certain stages of social history, its kernel goes back to the most ancient of times.
