On the history of the connection of the criminal court and the civil court chambers’ in the Russian Empire provinces in the second half of the 1860s (on the example of the Voronezh province)

Importance. One of the main transitional period issues of reforming the judicial system of Russia in the second half of the 1860s is connecting the chambers issue of the criminal court and the civil court at the provincial level. The purpose of the study is, firstly, to identify the mechanism of connecting the chambers of the criminal court and the civil court in the provinces of Russia in the second half of the 1860s, and secondly, to analyze the main problems faced by judicial officials when connecting the analyzed institutions.Materials and Methods. The main sources of the research are the following materials: archival files from the funds of the State Archive of the Voronezh Region (GAVO); normative legal acts, collections of rules and laws; materials of the periodical press; – statistical and reference publications. The methodological basis of the research was both general and particular methods of scientific cognition: the method of structural analysis; the historical-comparative method; the historicalsystemic method; the formal-logical method; other methods of scientific cognition were also used in the article.Results and Discussion. Archival materials from the funds of the State archive of Voronezh region are analyzed, according to which it is possible to restore the connecting the chambers mechanism of the criminal court and the civil court in the provinces of the Russian Empire. On the basis of the current imperial legislation, the general regulatory rules that judicial officials followed when connecting the judicial institutions in question in the second half of the 1860s are revealed. The main problems faced by judicial officials when connecting the chambers of the criminal court and the civil court in the Voronezh province are identified and considered.Conclusion. The mechanism for connecting the chambers of the criminal court and the civil court in the provinces of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 1860s was not specifically prescribed. From November 26, 1867 to July 1, 1869, the judicial system in Voronezh province was at a transitional stage. During this period, pre-reform judicial institutions still continued to operate, at the same time new courts began to work: Voronezh and Ostrogozhsky District courts. The main problem in the functioning of the Judicial Chambers (including the united Chamber since May 1, 1868) at the transitional stage was the lack of a full-time number of judges.