Abolition of Courts of Conscience in Russian Empire: A Study of Causality

This article offers a comprehensive analysis of the reasons for the phased abolition of the Courts of Conscience (sovestnye sudy) in the Russian Empire during the 1820s to 1850s. The source base includes administrative records from the collections of the Russian State Historical Archive, legislative acts of the Russian Empire from the first half of the nineteenth century, and contemporary memoirs. The novelty of this research lies in its focus on a subject that has hitherto been largely overlooked in the historiography, thereby filling a significant gap in the scholarly literature. Furthermore, the study introduces into academic discourse a substantial body of previously unexamined archival documents. The author concludes that the formal justifications for the abolition of the Courts of Conscience served merely as a pretext for their closure as independent judicial institutions. It is argued that the root cause of their abolition was intrinsically linked to their unique character. The article emphasizes that within the context of the growing dominance of legal positivism — a philosophy embraced by the senior officials of the Ministry of Justice — the distinctive, equity-focused nature of the Courts of Conscience rendered them incompatible with the Russian legal framework of the pre-reform era, which was predominantly based on the principles of formalistic legal proceedings.

Court of Conscience, Ministry of Justice, Count Viktor Nikitich Panin, Judicial Reform of 1864, Pre-Reform Russian Judiciary, Efficiency of the Judiciary, Legal Positivism, Russian Empire