Issue 3 (92)
| “LITIGANTS ON THE FRONTIERS”: DETERMINANTS OF JUDICIAL ACTIVITY IN LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 2026 | Number | 3 (92) |
| Pages | 24-33 | Type | scientific article |
| UDC | 94(47)”1885” | BBK | 63.3(2)5 |
| Authors | Verniaev Igor I. |
Topic | FRONTIER MODERNIZATION IN THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA |
| Summary | This article explores the factors driving the regional differentiation of judicial activity in the post-reform Russian Empire. The historiography is currently divided between two poles: the paradigm of legal dualism, which postulates the alienation of rural and non-Russian (inorodtsy) populations from the Crown courts, and the opposing thesis of mass grassroots legalism, largely verified through isolated, predominantly descriptive regional case studies. The present study offers a comparative quantitative macro-analysis utilizing multiple linear regression. Drawing on data from 55 provinces (1885), it tests the hypothesis that mass appeals to the general civil justices of the peace (mirovye sudy) were driven by the emergence of “contact zones”, where traditional particularistic institutions lost their effectiveness as mediators. The results of the regression modeling (R² = 0.665) demonstrate that judicial activity was a function of the interaction between social demand and institutional supply. The key predictors of demand included ethno-linguistic diversity, urbanization, commercial intensity, and the predominance of males among migrants (a marker of seasonal labor migration, or otkhodnichestvo). The infrastructural accessibility of the justice system served as the primary supply factor. These quantitative findings are corroborated by narrative sources, including inspection records from the Ministry of Justice, judicial reports, and periodical data. The article concludes that the imperial justice of the peace evolved into a highly sought after external arbiter and an instrument of legal integration primarily on the frontiers — spaces characterized by the intersection of heterogeneous ethnic, migratory, and economic interests. | ||
| Keywords | Russian Empire, Judicial Reform of 1864, justice of the peace, contact zones, frontiers, legal integration, multiple linear regression, imperial peripheries, legal frontiers | ||
| References |
Burbank J. Russian Peasants Go to Court: Legal Culture in the Countryside, 1905–1917. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004. (in English). Gaudin C. Ruling Peasants: Village and State in Late Imperial Russia. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007. (in English). Kirmse S. “Law and Society” in Imperial Russia. InterDisciplines: Journal of History and Sociology, 2012, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 103–134. DOI: 10.4119/indi-969 (in English). Kirmse S. The Lawful Empire. Legal Change and Cultural Diversity in Late Tsarist Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. (in English). Krestyannikov E. A., Lyubichankovsky S. V., Azamatova G. B., Verniaev I. I. et al. Pravosudie na periferii Rossiiskoy imperii: mezhdu unifikatsiey i raznoobraziem [Justice on the Periphery of the Russian Empire: Between Unification and Diversity]. Tyumen: TyumGU-Press Publ., 2025. (in Russ.). Neuberger J. Between Statute and Custom: Mediation, the Justice of the Peace, and Popular Legal Culture in Imperial Russia. Conference on Judicial Reform in Russia, 1864–1995. Toronto: Centre for Russian and East European Studies, 1995, pp. 1–23. (in English). Pratt M. L. Arts of the Contact Zone. Profession, 1991, pp. 33–40. (in English). Verniaev I. I. [The Concept of Legal Dualism and Its Overcoming in Contemporary Studies of the Russian Empire]. Rossiiskaya istoriya [Russian History], 2024, no. 3, pp. 22–42. DOI: 10.31857/S2949124X24030023 (in Russ.). |
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