Judicial reform is one of the Great Reforms of Alexander the Second. The reforms he carried out in a liberal spirit changed our country, gave many freedom and brought to a new level of development.
Alexander II began the great reforms with the abolition of the main braking force of the country's modernization - serfdom. This reform was difficult, and it was not easy to decide on it. The changes affected all segments of the population, which means that it was necessary to carefully consider all possible controversial situations. As you know,
redemption payments complicated the process of obtaining personal freedom for peasants. However, this did not stop the emperor - he takes a number of important transformations. Judicial reform is becoming a new stage in the development of the
judiciary in Russia. It was thanks to this reform that lawyers and
jury trials appeared
. Now we are talking about such phenomena as an integral sphere of legal life, and then they caused a lot of controversy and questions. The concept of judicial reform involved a transition to a European system. This indicated that the court was to become nonsense, and all processes - open.
So, judicial reform was launched in 1864. All innovations were introduced gradually so that there were no strong oppositions against the new system.
The judicial reforms of Alexander 2 led to the creation of a powerful judicial base, contributed to the establishment of equality of all before the law, as well as the development of the legal system and the formation of new bodies. This reform was radical, which provoked unrest among the nobility. First of all, this was due to the introduction of verbosity of the court. As already mentioned above, it was precisely this reform that placed the peasant and the nobleman on a par. Also, widespread dissatisfaction with the new transformations was caused by the introduction of a jury. Now, according to the accused, the jury could consider the case - independent people making their verdict. This principle often did not live up to its expectations: there were cases when a jury delivered a verdict of acquittal to a person whose fault was simply obvious. For example, the story of Vera Zasulich, known in those years, which was recognized not guilty.
What did the new judicial system in the country lead to? As mentioned above, one of the consequences of the transformations was frequent acquittals of objectively guilty people. Also, judicial reform announced the publicity of the court. This principle led to the fact that court hearings began to be used as a source of scandalous news and incriminating material. Such events were not uncommon, after which the reformers decided to limit the openness of court hearings.
Thus, the judicial reform carried out by the emperor Alexander the Liberator led to the creation of an extensive judiciary in our country: lawyers appeared, a jury was established. The proclamation of the verbosity of the court, the openness and openness of the trial contributed to the humanization of the legal system.