Civil Departments of the Supreme Courts in the Right-Bank Ukraine (1797 – 1831): Imperial Expertise in the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth Judicial Tradition

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to conduct an analysis of the social value of the operation of the governorate supreme courts’ civil departments – appeal and auditorial establishments of the Right-Bank Ukraine. In order to attract allegiance of the Polish nobility and to get asserted in the historic region, there was a flexible policy developed by the supreme power, which was primarily aimed at preserving civil relationship system typical for the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth. The author discovers the margins of the elite’s and the judicial power’s compromises resulting in the local population adjusting to the Russian rule. The methodology of the research is based on a combination of general scientific (analysis, synthesis, generalization) and special-historical (historical- genetic, historical-typological, historical-systematic) methods with the principles of historicism, systematicity and scientificity, making it possible to concentrate on the mechanisms of adapting the judicial tradition of the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth to the requirements of the supreme power. The scientific novelty is attained by means of researching the imperial expertise in search for consent with the Polish noblemen involving the mechanisms of preserving the judicial tradition of the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth. The civil departments were required to minimize the social tension by means of settling the civil law relationship. The article provides examples of flexibility in the policy held by the supreme power and judicial establishments, temporarily calming the elite in losing independence. Conclusions. Domestic policy of the supreme power was aimed at settling down the relationship with the local elite by means of re-establishing the elements of the judicial power of the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth and preserving agrarian relationship. However, it was an undeniable imperial policy of reaching adherence of the Polish nobility. There were appeal and auditorial governorate supreme courts established to control the judicial structures, the civil departments being responsible for correcting the operation of the lower courts and decreasing tension in the region. The adherence of the Polish nobility was achieved due to farsightedness and flexibility of the imperial policy, being able to pretend it was ignorant of certain violations in the civil law sphere. The attempts to implement the Russian legislation transforming the current system, generated violations primarily in the financial matters. The supreme power observed status quo in the relationship between the landowners and the serfs.