Reform

The 1864 judicial reform created Russia’s first constitution. When Alexander II signed the decree for the introduction of the judicial reform in November 1864, he delivered the death-blow to the autocracy. Although the tsar did not immediately recognise these consequences, educated public opinion certainly entertained no doubts in this regard. The judicial reform limited the authority of the monarch, since it separated the judiciary from the legislative and executive institutions, and confirmed the principle of judicial independence and tenure as a matter of law. But the reform of course went even further. It broke with the estate-based system of justice, as it had been promulgated by Catharine II at the end of the eighteenth century and set forth the equality of all subjects before the law. At least de jure, Russia was transformed into a state under the rule of law on the European model. For nothing remained either of the secret and inquisitorial methods which had been practised by lay judges in the estate-based courts. The long-familiar practices of Western Europe now came to Russia as well. No one was any longer to be punished for an action which the Criminal Code did not identify as a crime (‘nullum crimen sine lege’), and in civil proceedings, the principle of ‘where there is no plaintiff, neither shall there be a judge’ thenceforth applied.