322 had been instructed to write a memorandum about the judicial hierarchy in Sweden. The court system presented in the draft submitted to the Senate by the iustits-kollegiia was identical with the content of the plan of November 15, 1718 for the organization of lower courts.”^ The draft stipulated that “courts and judges shall be installed everywhere in the giibernii, provinces, and towns.” The next instance was given the designation “the high court of appeals” (vysshii nadvornyi sud, cf. hovrätt) in this proposal (chapter 11:2). If any of the parties to a case were dissatisfied with the decision of “the highest court of appeals" (chapter III: 1), he could appeal it to “the state college {gosudarstvennaia kollegiia), where the presidents are to meet according to what is the practice in the Senate" (chapter IV: 1). The decision of the Senate could not be appealed, “and he who ventures to complain about it to His Majesty will be subject to the death sentence" (chapter V:1—2). Peter was very unwilling to receive suppliants, which fact explains this severe punishment. Peter himself participated in the drafting of this law, which went through six editions.*^ In the second edition, the tsar altered the designation “the high court of appeals" to “the iustits-kollegiia," which shows that the college was to have a position corresponding to that of the Svea Court of Appeals in the Swedish court system as that position was understood by the Russians at the time. But the final position of the iustitskollegiia in the Russian judicial system had still not been established.'*^ In the memorandum mentioned above. Pick had related that: ill jeden kleinen Gouvernement seije so viel Unter-Land-Gerichten, alss Districten darinnen verhanden, und weilen die Bauern in Schweden freije Leute sind so darft der Edelman den Bauern nichts selbst straffen, sondern in den geringsten Kleinigkeiten muss dass Untergericht sprechen und davon kan der Bauer noch appelieren an dass Ober-Lant-Gericht uber die ganze Province. It is interesting to note the connection Pick made between the position of the Swedish peasants as freemen and the existence of an independent system of lower courts. Pick proposed that the lowest court, the district court modeled on the Swedish häradsrätt, could be eliminated in the Russian case, since “der Edelman in Russland die Bauern an Liebe und Giite nach Gefallen straffen kan, und also selber Richter iiber seine the summaries of Swedish procedural law on the basis of which the commission conducted its work; see TsGADA, f. 342 delo 31 chast’ 1 1. 258, and see below, p. 342. See above, p. 319. ZA (no. 381), 371—379. Ibid., 372, 373 note 1. ■■ TsGADA, f. 248 delo 58 1. 34.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=