“Controlled Justice”: Revision and Appeal Process in the Courts of Right-Bank Ukraine (1793-1825)

Abstract

The article analyzes the revision and appeal process in the courts of the Right-Bank Ukraine’s provinces in the context of the policy of “pushing” the newly acquired territories into the imperial space. Under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in the conditions of judicial independence, the noble corporation was able to fight for justice, if necessary, using the mechanism of appealing against sentences to the Lublin Tribunal. After the second partition, the new imperial government retained the existing judicial system, but with mandatory revising of proceedings by appointed officials/administrative institutions.

After the construction of the state judicial system in 1796, according to the 1775 “Institutions for the Administration of the Provinces of the All-Russian Empire”, a multi-level system of control over “justice” was introduced, which in the context of formal proceedings meant confirmation of the verdict by written documents: witness testimony, certificates, investigation materials, etc. All criminal proceedings were mandatorily submitted to higher courts for review, while civil proceedings were voluntary. In the context of the imperial policy of seeking a compromise with the elites, Paul I and Alexander I restored certain elements of the Rzeczpospolita judicial procedures, but preserved the administration and the imperial revision and appeal process. In some cases, for the sake of establishing themselves in the region, the authorities “turned a blind eye” to certain violations in the work of the courts, including violations of the revision and appeal process.