Legal Custom in the Activities of Volost Courts of the Moscow Province when Considering Land Disputes in the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries

Volost courts in pre-revolutionary Russia were the most important judicial bodies.Their emergence is associated with the judicial reform of the second half of the 19th century.Volost courts were the lowest judicial instance in which peasant disputes were considered.They applied not only the norms of positive, but also customary law.They were also an important link in the state justice system associated with peasant selfgovernment.Legal customs occupied a significant place in the regulation of land relations in prerevolutionary Russia among the peasant class of the Moscow province, complementing positive law, ensuring the stability of agrarian relations and promoting the effective use of land.Volost courts relied on them in their decisions, considering disputes that arose among peasants.When making decisions, volost courts also relied on such customary legal principles as equality, justice, the labor principle, which secured the right to use the land and its fruits.The volost courts, based on the current norms of customary law, took into account the attitude of the participants in the trial to work and the degree of their invested labor when making decisions.The peasants did not divide the right of ownership into elements known to modern doctrine, did not separate the right of possession from the right to use land and from other types of property rights, which is reflected in the judicial practice of the volost courts.They often based their decisions on the norms of customary law, which allowed transactions with land plots, even if they were not the private property of the seller, applied the custom of prescription, the custom of recognizing the right to an erected building on the estate land and other customs.