Проблемы организации народного суда как элемента системы советской юстиции

Abstract

This article dwells on improving the efficiency of people’s courts, which were a fundamental element of the Soviet judicial system, and on establishing control over their activities. The chronological framework of the paper covers the mid-1920s, when the results of the 1922 judicial reform had been put in practice and the key problems of the people’s courts became apparent. The article analyses the notion of the people’s court, which, on the one hand, reflects the essence of the judicial body making excessive use of the institution of elected people’s assessors in its work, and, on the other hand, levels the class essence of the Soviet court. Turning to documentary sources and archival materials, the author dwells on the main tasks of the new state power in organizing the activity of the people’s courts. It is emphasized that these courts were subject to scrutiny by the People’s Commissariat for Justice not just due to the objective need to establish their normal work, but also as a result of the increased confrontation between the Commissariat and the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, especially over the supervision of the judicial work of provincial courts and people’s courts. Having analysed the Instruction on the Audit Procedure of People’s Courts by Provincial Courts issued in 1924, the author points out that the Commissariat aimed not only to administer the work of the people’s courts, but also to assist them in improving their activities and solving problems. The author concludes that, in addition to formal reasons due to the limited number of judicial institutions, incompetent personnel and inadequate funding, the normalization of the work of the people’s courts was also hindered by a conceptual contradiction. On the one hand, the authorities aimed to create a civilized law that would demonstrate to the whole world the advantages of the Soviet system, and, on the other, to establish the class principle in the work of people’s courts.