Judicial institutions of the inner Kyrgyz horde of the Lower Volga frontier

Abstract

This article analyzes organization and functioning of institutes of judicial authority in Inner Kyrgyz horde after its entry into the Russian Empire.

The judicial system and legal proceedings of Kyrgyz (Kazakhs) after entry of the Horde into the Russian state became part of the all-imperial judicial system, having kept at the same time a number of national peculiarities. During gradual strengthening of the state control, the judicial status of this territory changed: from a relative autonomy of local judicial bodies to complete control over judicial system and legal proceedings exercised by the central imperial government. The main function of the judiciary - the administration of justice gradually concentrated in the hands of the officials of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice.

The fact that the settled and nomadic population of the Empire lived in close proximity created a mobile zone of rapprochement, including the legal cultural traditions. Under the influence of both external and internal factors the traditional Kazakh regulations of the common right were no more used in the Kyrgyz (Kazakh) society to solve certain types of legal cases.

The Khan's High Court, as an institution of the judicial power in the Kyrgyz (Kazakh) society ceases to exist in 1845. After the death of Khan Jahangir Russian government abolished the Khan's power and jurisdiction of all cases; the Khan’s court passed its jurisdiction to the Provisional Council of the Office of Internal Kirghiz horde. Another National Judicial Institute - "People's Court" eventually lost its rights, and people stopped applying to it. At the turn of XIX-XX centuries Kirghiz (Kazakhs) seldom used customary law in resolving disputes and litigation, preferring to refer to the civil and criminal laws of the Russian Empire.