“Imaginary Justice”: Mountain Verbal Courts and the Problem of Judicial and Administrative Reform of the Caucasus Region in the Materials of the Audit N. M. Reinke

Abstract

The Russian Empire sought to finally solve the problem of integrating the Caucasus into the national political and legal space. The socio–political crisis of the Caucasian region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was provoked by declining efficiency of regional management. The centralization of administrative practices slowed integration of the Caucasus into the Empire, replacing living activity with a dead form. The restoration of the Caucasian vicegerency in 1905 was an extreme step. The institution of the governorship, with its autonomy and independence, was nothing short of fleeing the Empire for the sake of empire. The transformations carried out in extreme conditions returned the trust of the population and the status of mentor to the Russian authorities. However, many problems of modernizing the region were not fully resolved, which contributed to an increase of the potential for conflict and centrifugal tendencies. One of the most acute problems of judicial and administrative organization was the activity of mountain courts. The Senate revision of the Tiflis Court of Justice of 1910 revealed a gap between the highland courts and the all-Russian institutes of legal proceedings, working on the basis of judicial charters on November 20, 1864. Opinions on the harmfulness of the mountain courts and their delineation of highlanders from other imperial subjects was divided among members of the audit, and the ranks of the local administration. Using archival documents, the article illustrates the problem of reorganizing legal proceedings in the southern outskirts of the Russian state.