judiciary reforms (1864)

Question 1

what did emancipation also demand

Answer 1

-an overhaul of the law in particular concerning property rights + change in the administration of local justice
-formerly been in the hands of a judge examining written evidence prepared by landowner + police

Question 2

previous system

Answer 2

-no jury system
-no lawyers
- no examination of witnesses
-accused considered guilty until proven innocent
-judges decision final

Question 3

new system modeled on west(equality)

Answer 3

-equality before law established with single system of local provincial and national courts
-accused was presumed innocent until proven guilty + could employ a lawyer to defend himself

Question 4

volost courts

Answer 4

dealt exclusively with peasant cases

Question 5

criminal cases

Answer 5

-criminal cases were heard before barristers and a jury, selected from lists of property owners

Question 6

judges

Answer 6

appointed by the tsar and given improved training and pay

Question 7

local justices of the peace

Answer 7

elected every 3 years by the zemstva + were to be independent from political control

Question 8

positive of new system

Answer 8

-fairer, less corrupt–> public flocked to open courts
- new opportunity arose for articulate lawyers of intelligentsia to criticise regime
-lawyers=celebrites in their own right

Question 8

courts

Answer 8

-opened to the public and proceedings could be freely reported
-national trials were recorded in a government newspaper–> ‘russian courier’

Question 9

negative of new system

Answer 9

new juries sometimes acquitted the guilty because they sympathised with their plight
-trial by jury was never established in poland, the western provinces and the Caucasus
-ecclesiastical and military courts were excluded from the reforms
-peasantry in the Volost courts were still treated differently from those of higher status