Decree “On Court” adopted

November 22 (December 5), 1917 the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR SNK) adopted a decree "On court" - the first decrees to reform and regulate the activities of the judiciary. The decree of the court N 1, developed with the active participation of the SNK chairman V. I. Lenin, legislated the basic principles for creation and operation of the first revolutionary courts.

The decree on court abolished all pre-existing judicial institutions: the prosecutor's office, the Bar, the institution of judicial investigators. At the same time abolished were district courts, judicial chambers, Government Senate including all departments, military and maritime, and commercial courts. The activity of magistrates' courts was suspended. Instead of these bodies local collegiate courts were created. They consisted of a permanent judge and two people’s assessors. Thus, the decree legislated democratic basis for organization and activities of Soviet courts: eligibility, participation in the administration of justice by people’s assessors, public hearing of cases in courts, the right of the accused for protection.

The members of the new court were elected by local councils. Any person having civil rights could act as prosecutor, advocate and attorney in court. As to preliminary investigation, judges exercised it alone. County and metropolitan local congresses of judges, which considered verdicts and decisions of lower local courts that had not come into force, played the role of cassation instance. If the higher court established that investigation had been carried out incorrectly, procedural rules violated, the sentence was unjust or there was no corpus delicti in convict’s action, the case could be remitted for a new trial, a verdict reversed or modified in the direction of leniency.

In February and July 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted new decrees on court (№ 2 and № 3), which greatly expanded the jurisdiction and competence of local courts, and determined the competence of circuit and national courts, established procedures for submission and consideration of appeals against decisions of courts and the basis of legal proceedings.

At the III All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers, Soldiers and Peasants Deputies, which took place in January 1918, Lenin underlined the significance of the decree on court N 1: "Let them cry that we destroyed the old court immediately without trying to reform it. But we have cleared the way for the real people's court and not so much by force of repression, but by example of masses, authority of workers, without the formalities; of the court as an instrument of exploitation we have made an instrument of education on a solid foundation of socialist society”.

Lit.: Антонова Л. И. Великая Октябрьская революция и создание народных судов (1917-1918 гг.) [Электронный ресурс] // Юридическая Россия. 2002-2006. URL: http://law.edu.ru/doc/document.asp?docID=1133185; Бабенко В. Н. Судебная система России: история и современность. М., 2007; Власов В. И. История судебной власти в России. Кн. 2: 1917-2003 гг. М., 2004; Голубев В. М. Исполнение судебных решений и возникновение института судебных исполнителей в первые годы советской власти (1917-1930-е гг.) // Практика исполнительного производства. 2009. № 2. С. 26-47; Декрет о суде. 22 ноября (5 декабря) 1917 г. // Декреты Советской власти. Т. 1. М., 1957; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://constitution.garant.ru/history/act1600-1918/5312/; Кожевников М. В. История советского суда. 1917-1947 гг. М., 1948; Полянский Н. П. Первые страницы советской науки о суде // Правоведение. № 1. Л., 1957. С. 107-111; Революционное правотворчество до издания первого декрета о суде // Герцензон А. А., Грингауз Ш. С., др. История советского уголовного права. М., 1947. Гл. IV. С. 99-114.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

The decree ‘On revolutionary tribunals’ adopted // On this day. 04 May 1918.