UDC

Authors

Abstract

The author studied the public opinion about the work of volost courts (local peasant courts) in the Russian Empire in the late 19th century. This research is based on the materials of periodicals, political writings, and letters addressed to the Commission for Legal Regulations Revision under the chairmanship of Minister of Justice N.V. Muravyov. Among the critics of volost courts were lawyers, landowners, peasants, liberal law journals, and journals of the Narodniks. They pointed out the following drawbacks: the use of customary law, class isolation, illiteracy among the judges, bribery, and dependence of the volost judges on volost clerks and zemstvo district heads. This paper describes the public reaction to the work of volost courts after the adoption of the Zemstvo District Heads Act in 1889: it was suggested to either abolish the volost court, reform it or leave it as it was. Some local representatives proposed to codify the customary peasant law and draw up lists of customs in each uyezd to eliminate disputable situations during trial. Advocates of the volost court were in absolute minority. The public in general was dissatisfied with the way these courts administered justice.

Keywords

References

1. Galkin A.G. Pravosudie dlya krest’yan: volostnye i mirovye sudy v otsenke krest’yan i obrazovannogo obshchestva (1870–1880-e gg.) [Justice for Peasants: Volost and Justice Courts Under Assessment of Peasants and Educated Society (1870–1880)]. Istoricheskaya i sotsial’no-obrazovatel’naya mysl’, 2011, no. 4, pp. 191–195.
   
2. Zemtsov L.I. Diskussiya v III Dume po voprosu o mestnom sude (pervoe chtenie – 1909 g.) [Discussion in the Third Duma on Local Court (First Reading in 1909)]. Vekhi minuvshego: uchenye zapiski istoricheskogo fakul’teta LGPU [Milestones of the Past: Proceedings of the Faculty of History, Lipetsk State Pedagogical University]. Lipetsk, 2014. Iss. 8, pp. 180–186.
   
3. Zemtsov L.I. Ryazanskiy deputat D.A. Leonov o mestnom sude (obsuzhdenie zakonoproekta v Gosudarstvennoy Dume III sozyva – 1909 g.) [Ryazan Member of the Duma D.A. Leonov on the Local Court (Discussion of a Bill in the Third State Duma, 1909)]. Bartenevskie chteniya: materialy nauch. konf. po problemam gumanit. nauk, posvyashch. 100-letiyu nachala Pervoy mirovoy voyny [Bartenev Readings: Proc. Sci. Conf. on the Humanities, Dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of World War I]. Lipetsk, 10–11 October 2014. Lipetsk, 2014, pp. 145–152.
   
4. Shchedrina Yu.V. Diskussii o sud’be volostnogo suda v khode raboty Osobogo soveshchaniya o nuzhdakh sel’skokhozyaystvennoy promyshlennosti [Discussions About the Fate of the Parish Court in the Work of the Special Committee on the Needs of Agricultural Industry]. Uchenye zapiski: elektronnyy nauchnyy zhurnal Kurskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2014, no. 4, pp. 32–43.
   
5. Sorokin A.A. Vopros o reforme mestnogo suda v deyatel’nosti Osobogo soveshchaniya o nuzhdakh sel’skokhozyaystvennoy promyshlennosti [The Question of Local Court Reformation in the Work of the Special Committee on the Needs of Agricultural Industry]. Gosudarstvo, obshchestvo, tserkov’ v istorii Rossii XX–XXI vv.: materialy XV Mezhdunar. nauch. konf. [State, Society, and the Church in the History of Russia of the 20th and 21st Centuries: Proc. 15th Int. Sci. Conf.]. Ivanovo, 23–24 March 2016. Ivanovo, 2016. Pt. 2, pp. 627–633.
   
6. Shatkovskaya T.V. Realizatsiya pravovykh predstavleniy rossiyan o spravedlivom pravosudii v protsesse adaptatsii k institutu mirovogo suda [Implementation of the Legal Ideas of Russians About Justice During Adaptation to the Magistrate’s Court]. Probely v rossiyskom zakonodatel’stve, 2012, no. 5, pp. 38–42.
   
7. Bezgin V.B. Sel’skoe pravosudie i pravovye obychai russkikh krest’yan vtoroy poloviny XIX – nachala XX veka [The Rural System of Justice and Legal Traditions of the Russian Peasants in the Second Half of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries]. Tambov, 2014.