The Judicial Reform
In late 1864, the judicial reform became
law after several years of strenuous effort.
It replaced the old arbitrary, backlogged (over 3 million undecided
cases before the courts in 1842), corrupt, and despotic judicial system with
one based largely on Western principles.
As with the previous two "Great Reforms," however, it was not
applied immediately in all parts of the empire.
And some of its provisions, for example, trial by jury, were not
introduced at all in Belorussia, parts of Ukraine, Poland, and the
Caucasus.
Where
it was applied fully the following principles came into effect: 1. the creation
of two separate court systems: for major civil or criminal cases there were
regular courts, and for minor cases there were courts presided over by a
Justice of the Peace, elected by a zemstvo or city duma; 2. rights to appeal
under either system to higher courts; 3.
the independence of the judiciary from administrative interference and the
appointment of judges for life, except when removed for moral misconduct; 4.
trial by jury for serious criminal cases unless considered crimes against the
state; 5. the right to a lawyer; 6. the open publicity of court proceedings; 7.
the use of oral testimony and pleadings--as opposed to the use of exclusively
written evidence under the old system; and 8. the establishment of a
professional bar.
In
addition to the new courts, separate military, ecclesiastical, and peasant
courts continued to exist. Since the
country's peasants made up about four-fifths of the population, their volost
courts were especially significant.
Following the emancipation, the government reconstituted these courts,
which had previously existed for state peasants. In each volost (an administrative unit
generally containing several village communes) peasants now elected from among
themselves their own judges. These
judges dealt with minor peasant criminal offenses and most civil disputes involving
only peasants. They could impose small
fines, imprisonment for short periods, and even sentence a peasant to be
flogged with a rod for up to twenty blows.
Their decisions were to be based upon customary practices, as opposed to
written law.
Although
the Russian official Nikitenko complained in his diary that the new laws failed
to generate widespread discussion or enthusiasm, the new judicial profession
which it created did prove popular with university students. By the end of the 1860s, more than half of
them were majoring in law.
Source:
Walter G. Moss, A History of