Historical dynamics of judicial and legal integration of the Russian Empire

Abstract

From its inception, the Russian Empire sought to create a unified judicial and legal space. Legal pluralism was not considered to be a value and something worth being preserved in the long term. However, multidimensional diversity of the population and regions, coupled with continuing expansion of the empire made achieving the strategic goal of legal and judicial homogeneity difficult. The historiography of the question offers different viewpoints on the level of integration of the imperial judicial and legal system. Some researchers insist that the imperial center overall managed to unite and uniform the judicial system and the legislation. Others argue that the judiciary, legal culture, and norms remained heterogeneous in the estate, ethnic, religious, and regional dimensions. The purpose of this book is to provide an objective assessment of the processes and outcomes of imperial judicial and legal integration from the 18th to the early 20th century. The findings demonstrate that the main method of integration was formation of hybrid justice and legal institutions. In this process, empire-wide judicial and legal models were adapted to the local specifics, while some elements of regional, ethnic and confessional judicial practices and legal cultures were incorporated into the imperial system of courts and legislation. The highest level of judicial and legal uniformity was achieved among the elite strata. The commoners remained less integrated in this respect. Criminal law had become almost uniform for all regions, communities, and classes by the end of the imperial period. However, many sections of civil law remained diverse. While the middle and higher levels of the judiciary were integrated and uniform, unification affected local courts to a lesser extent. As a result, institutional heterogeneity was most prominent in the fields of local justice and civil law. The book examines creation and functioning of this hybrid space of local justice and civil law, in which imperial components coexisted with group, local, and regional ones.