“Decree on the City Court for the Region of Baku with the District” in the Context of the Reforms of the Judiciary and Legal Proceedings in the Muslim Transcaucasus at the Beginning of the 19th Century

Abstract

The article examines the reforms of the court in the Muslim part of Transcaucasia at the beginning of the 19th century. A historical and legal excursion is conducted, the judicial system of the khanates of northern Azerbaijan that had developed by that time, its legal foundations, as well as the legal essence of the «Resolution on the City Court for the Baku region with the district» as a normative legal act that laid the legal foundations for judicial reforms and the judicial system are explicated and analyzed. The results of the study allowed us to substantiate the conclusion that before joining Russia, the judicial system and judicial proceedings in the khanates of northern Azerbaijan had been regulated by the norms of customary law and Sharia. After joining the Russian Empire, for the first time at the regulatory level, this sphere received legal embodiment. Based on the legal acts and narrative materials, the author›s position is proposed and substantiated that the integration of the outskirts into a single state-legal organism of the empire and other political factors that developed at the beginning of the 19th century required the reorganization of the judicial system and judicial proceedings in the Muslim part of Transcaucasia. It is proved that the reforms carried out at the beginning of the century laid the backbone foundations of the judicial system and judicial proceedings of the region, laid the foundation for the formation of secular courts, provided subjects with free access to justice, introduced new legal rules and procedures into the judicial activity of the region.