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FRANCE , See also:Law and Institutions). From the See also:town The See also:judge (ispravnik), who, in spite of the principle laid See also:ordinary down in 1864, combines judicial and administrative tribunals.
functions, an See also:appeal lies (as in the See also:case of the justices of the See also:peace) to an See also:assembly of such See also:judges; from these again there is an appeal to the See also:district See also:court (okrugniya sud), consisting of three judges;4 from this to the court of appeal (sudebniya palala); while over this again is the See also:senate, which, as the supreme court of cassation, can send a case for retrial for See also:reason shown. The district court, sitting with a See also:jury, can try criminal cases without appeal, but only by See also:special leave in each case of the court of appeal. The senate, as supreme court of cassation, has two departments, one for See also:civil and one for criminal cases. As a court of See also:justice its See also:main See also:drawback is that it is wholly unable to See also:cope with the
vast See also:mass of documents representing appeals from all parts of the See also:empire.
Two important classes in See also:Russia stood more or less outside the competence of the above systems: the See also:clergy and the
peasants. The ecclesiastical courts still retain a See also:Eccles'.
See also:jurisdiction over the clergy which they have lost astkal
elsewhere in See also:Europe; and in them the old See also:secret courts.
written See also:procedure survives. Their See also:interest for the laity lies
' An See also:ukaz of 1879 gave the See also:governors the right to See also:report secretly on the qualifications of candidates for the See also:office of justice of the peace. In 1889 See also: The confusion of the judicial and administrative functions was introduced again by the See also:appointment of officials as judges. In 1909 the third Duma restored the election of justices of the peace. 2 The justices, though See also:noble-landowners, are almost exclusively of very moderate means, and, though elected by the See also:land-owning class, they are—according to M. Leroy-See also:Beaulieu--prejudiced in favour of the poor mujik rather than of the wealthy landlord. 2 These honorary justices are mainly recruited from the ranks of the higher bureaucracy and the See also:army. 4 This corresponds to the See also:French tour d'See also:arrondissement, but its jurisdiction is, territorially, much wider, often covering several districts or even a whole See also:government. See also:System before /864. mainly in the fact that See also:marriage and See also:divorce fall within their competence; and their reform has been postponed largely because the wealthy and corrupt society of the See also:Russian See also:capital preferred a system which makes divorce easily purchasable and avoids at the same See also:time the See also:scandal of publicity. The case of the peasants is more interesting, and deserves a some-what more detailed See also:notice. The peasants, as already stated, See also:form a class apart, untouched by the See also:influence of Western See also:civilization, the principles of which volost they are quite incapable of understanding or appreci- courts ating. This fact was recognized by the legislators of 1864, and beneath the statutory tribunals created in that See also:year the special courts of the peasants were suffered to survive.' These were indeed but a few years older. Up to 1861, the date of the emancipation, the See also:peasant See also:serfs had been under the patrimonial jurisdiction of their lords. The See also:edict of emancipation abolished this jurisdiction, and set up instead in each volost a court particular to the peasants (volostnye sud), of which the judges and jury, themselves peasants, were elected by the assembly of the volost (volostnye skhod) each year. In these courts the ordinary written law had little to say; the decisions of the volost courts were based on the See also:local customary law, which alone the peasants, and the peasants alone, under-stand. The justice administered in them was patriarchal and rough, but not ineffective. All civil cases involving less than too roubles value were within their competence, and more important cases by consent of the parties. They acted also as See also:police courts in the case of See also:petty thefts, breaches of the peace and the like. They were also charged with the See also:maintenance of See also:order in the mir and the See also:family, punishing infractions of the religious law, husbands who See also:beat their wives, and parents who See also:ill-treated their See also:children. The See also:penalty of flogging, preferred by the peasants to See also:fine or imprisonment, was not unknown. The judges were, of course, wholly illiterate, and this tended to throw the ultimate See also:power into the hands of the clerk (pisar) of the court, who was rarely above corruption. In 1880, according, to the observations of M. Leroy-Beaulieu,' the fines inflicted by the court were commonly paid in See also:vodka, which was consumed on the premises by the judges and the parties to the suit; there is no reason to suppose that this amiable See also:custom has been abandoned. The peasants are not compelled to go to the volost court. They can apply to the .police commissaries (stanovoi) or to the justices of the peace; but the See also:great distances to be traversed in a See also:country so sparsely populated makes this course highly inconvenient.2 On the other See also:hand, from the volost court there is no appeal, unless it has acted ultra vires or illegally. In the latter case a court of cassation is provided in the district See also:committee for the affairs of the peasants (Uyezdnoe po krestianskim dolam prisutstviye), which has superseded the assembly of arbiters of the peace (mirovye posredniki) established in 1866.2 (W. A. P.) Previous to the revolution of 1905 but little progress had been made in Russia as regards See also:education.' Distrust of the natural sciences, Ednca- even in their technical applications, and of Western See also:don. ideas of See also:free government; See also:desire to make university education, and even secondary education, a See also:privilege of the wealthier classes; neglect of See also:primary education, coupled with suppression by the See also:ministry of public instruction of all initiative, private and public, in the See also:matter of disseminating education among the illiterate classes—these were the distinctive features of the educational policy of the last twenty years of the 19th See also:century. ' L'Emp(re See also:des tsars, ii. p. 310. ' In the ordinary tribunals See also:weight is given to the " customs " of the peasants, even when these conflict with the written law. ' The abolition of the special courts of the peasants was announced in the same imperial ukaz (18th of See also:October 1906) which promised the See also:relief of the peasants from the arbitrary See also:control of the communes, and permission for them to migrate elsewhere without losing their communal rights. This was made See also:part of the See also:general reform of Russian local government, which in the autumn of 1910 was still under the See also:consideration of the Duma. ° Of the effects of the See also:political changes in Russia on the educational system of the country it was, even in the autumn of 1910, too See also:early to say anything See also:save that an undoubted impetus had It was only towards its See also:close that a See also:change took See also:place in the attitude of the government towards technical education, and a few high and See also:middle technical See also:schools were opened. It was only then, too, that a reform was started in secondary education, with the See also:object of revising the so-called " classical " system favoured in the lyceums since the 'seventies, the See also:complete failure of which has been demonstrated after nearly See also:thirty years of experiment. Apart from the schools under the ministry of See also:war (Cossack voiskos and schools at the See also:barracks), the great bulk of the primary schools are either under the ministry of public instruction or of the See also:Holy See also:Synod. Those under the latter See also:body are of See also:recent growth, the policy of the last twenty years of the 19th century having been to hand over the See also:budget allowances for primary instruction to the Holy Synod, which opened See also:parish schools under the local priests. The schools under the Synod are themselves divided into two categories: parish schools and See also:reading schools of an inferior grade. No teaching certificate is required by the teachers in either class of school, the permission of the See also:bishop (like the French lettre d'obedience of 1849) being sufficient. The consequence is, that the See also:village priests, being too much occupied with their parochial duties, cannot give more than casual or perfunctory See also:attention to the schools, and the numerous pupils either exist on See also:paper only, or are handed over to See also:half-educated cantors, deacons or hired teachers. One See also:good feature of the Russian primary school system, however, is that in many villages there are school gardens or See also:fields; in pearly moo schools, See also:bee-keeping, and in 300 silkworm culture is taught; while in some 900 schools the children receive instruction in various trades; and in 300 schools in slojd (a system of See also:manual training originated in See also:Finland). Girls are taught handwork in many schools. Nearly 5o% of the teachers are See also:women. The See also:total See also:expenditure on primary schools in 1900 was £5,300,000 (about the See also:average in recent years), of which 20% was supplied by the See also:state, 23% by the zemstvos, 35i% by the village communities and the municipalities and 11% by private persons. The middle schools are maintained by the state, which contributes 25% of the expenditure of the classical and technical schools, by the fees of the pupils (30%), and by donations from the zemstvos and municipalities. The total grants from the state See also:exchequer for education of all grades in all parts of the empire amounted in 1906 to £8,107,000. The progress of primary education is illustrated by the fact that, while in 1885 there was one school for every 2665 inhabitants and one See also:pupil for every 48 inhabitants, in 1898 the figures were 1643 and 31 inhabitants respectively. According to the See also:census of 1897 the number of illiterates varied from 89.2 to 44.9% of the See also:population in the rural districts, and from 63.6 to 37.2 % in the See also:urban. For higher education there were in 1904 only 9 See also:universities (See also:Yuriev or Dorpat, Kazan, See also:Kharkov, See also:Kiev, See also:Moscow, See also:Odessa, St See also:Petersburg, See also:Warsaw and See also:Tomsk), with 19,400 students, 6 medical See also:academies (one for women), 6 theological academies, 6 military academies, 5 philological institutes, 3 Eastern See also:languages institutes, 3 law schools, 4 veterinary institutes, 4 agricultural colleges, 2 See also:mining institutes, 4 See also:engineering institutes, 2 universities for women (930 students at St Petersburg), 3 technical pedagogic schools, to technical institutes, 1 forestry and I topographical school. There has, however, been much activity since 1905 in the See also:establishment of new educational institutions, notably technical and commercial schools, which are placed under the new See also:minister of See also:commerce and See also:industry. Finland has a university of its own at See also:Helsingfors. The See also:standard of teaching in the universities is on the whole very high, and may be compared to that of the See also:German universities. The students are hard working, and generally very intelligent. Mostly sons of poor parents, they live in extreme poverty, sup-porting themselves chiefly by translating and by tutorial See also:work. The state of secondary education still leaves much to be desired. The steady tendency of Russian society towards increasing the number of secondary schools, where instruction would be based on the study of the natural sciences, is checked by the government in favour of the classical gymnasiums.' See also:Sunday schools and public lectures are virtually prohibited. A characteristic feature of the intellectual See also:movement in Russia is its tendency to extend to women the means of higher instruction. The gymnasiums for girls are both numerous and good. In addition to these, notwithstanding government opposition, a See also:series been given to the effort for improvement, and that the question had been seriously taken in hand by the imperial See also:administration and the Duma. What form it would ultimately take depended still on the See also:balance between the forces of conservatism and change, the suspicious See also:temper of the See also:autocracy being revealed, during the years of unstable See also:equilibrium, by the alternate concession and withdrawal of privileges, e.g. in the matter of the See also:independence of the universities. Any See also:account of the educational system cannot, therefore, be otherwise than See also:historical and provisional [En.]. ' An imperial rescript of loth of See also:June 1902 foreshadowed a re-organization of secondary education, and an imperial ukaz of 15th of See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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