WOMAN BEFORE THE JURY COURT IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE (REVISITING THE GENDER EQUALITY PRINCIPLE)

Abstract

This work presents implementation of the gender equality principle in the criminal proceed-ings of the Russian empire on the basis of the Judicial Statutes of 1864, official statistics materials of the Ministry of Justice, jury members’ documents of private origin, documentary narratives about courts, and folklore. The authors analyse and interpret statistical data on females and males acquitted and convicted by the jury court and the crown court. This work draws the following main conclusions: 1) in spite of the enforceable and officially declared equality of all subjects before the court, only men administered justice in the jury court, and the people’s legal consciousness and the settled judicial practice did not allow another situation to develop; 2) the fact that only men were jury mem-bers brought about the situation in which the jury court was less repressive to women than to men. As for crown judges, the percentage of women convicted by them was, on the contrary, generally more than that of men. Therefore, the proceedings of jury courts in the Russian empire actually breached the gender equality principle.

Keywords

• jury
• crown court
• russian empire
• judicial reform of 1864
• judicial statutes of 1864
• principle of gender equality