Comparative Characteristics of the State of the Judicial System of the Russian Empire before and after the Judicial Reform of 1864. Part 1; [Сравнительная характеристика состояния судебной системы Российской империи до и после Судебной реформы 1864 года. Часть 1]

For almost two hundred years of the existence of the Russian Empire, its judicial system has been reformed repeatedly. However, it was the reform of Alexander II that had the greatest impact, including on the administration of justice in modern Russia. As a result of fundamental changes in the criminal procedure legislation, the reformed Russian judicial system has never lagged behind the judicial systems of the most advanced Western European countries of that time. This work is devoted to the comparative characteristics of the judicial system of the Russian Empire before and after the Judicial reform of Alexander II, carried out in 1864. The study consists of two parts. This article presents the first part of the study, in which the author describes the state of the judicial system of the Russian Empire before the reform of 1864. The author analyzes the key problems and the main reasons that served as prerequisites for Alexander II's decision on the need for a complete reform of the judicial system of the state. The author investigated such pre-reform principles of justice of the Russian Empire as the estate principle, the principle of presumption of guilt, the principle of the rule of law, the principle of evidence, as well as the principle of secrecy of the trial. In this study, the author describes in detail the form and nature of the application of the above-mentioned principles of judicial proceedings. The article examines the main shortcomings of the pre-reform period of judicial proceedings, such as corruption, low qualifications of judges, lack of independence, as well as the inefficiency of the judicial system as a whole. The author also considers earlier attempts to reform the justice system, namely the projects of M.M. Speransky during the reign of emperors Alexander I, as well as the ideas of D.N. Bludov during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I. © 2022 International Network Center for Fundamental and Applied Research. All rights reserved.