The Legal Status of the Village Courts of the Russian Empire on the Territories of the Cossack Hosts in the Post-Reform Period (on the Example of the Kuban Region)

The article examines the procedural order for the formalizing local justice in the Cossack settlements of Russia after the reform of 1864. With the help of archival materials, which are being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, as well as legal acts, the features of the law enforcement practice of the village courts operating on the territory of the Kuban Cossack Army are shown. The village courts administered justice in the rural administrative units of the Kuban region. Their jurisdiction included the consideration of civil disputes and unimportant criminal cases within the village. It is shown that the institutions were distinguished by their non-social class character, and their formation was based on democratic principles. At the same time, it was revealed that due to the lack of legal education among the village judges, they systematically violated the legally established procedure of judicial proceedings as a result of which interested persons often appealed their decisions to a higher judicial instance – the Congress of Magistrates. Since 1891 the village courts of the Kuban region were transferred from the jurisdiction of the magistrates’ courts to the regional board of the Cossack army, which indicated a partial return to the pre-reform model of judicial proceedings. In conclusion, the author concludes that the activities of the village courts were based on a compilation of the norms of general imperial and special legislation regulating the specifics of community justice. Despite the migration policy in Russia in the second half of the XIX century, which provided for the settlement of the Kuban region by representatives of other social classes, the state sought to partially preserve traditional Cossack institutions, normatively securing for the village courts the right to be guided in resolving disputes, not only by imperial legislation, but also by Cossack customs.