Nadvornyi Sud

in Russia, a court with special jurisdiction that existed from 1719 to 1866, with interruptions. Under Peter I it was called the Hofgericht.

From 1719 to 1727 there was a Nadvornyi Sud in St. Petersburg, in Moscow, and in the provincial capitals of Kazan, Kursk, Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod, Smolensk, and Tambov. The court tried both criminal and civil cases and had appellate jurisdiction over lower courts. The creation of the Nadvornyi Sud was Peter I’s first attempt to separate the courts from the general government administration. However, as early as 1722 the presidents of almost all the Nadvornye Sudy were provincial governors or vice-governors. Abolished in 1727, the Nadvornyi Sud was reintroduced in 1775, when an upper and lower Nadvornyi Sud were established in both St. Petersburg and Moscow. By 1796 each city again had only one Nadvornyi Sud. Such courts were also established in Arkhangel’sk (1784), Vilnius (1797), and Zhitomir (1797). In 1798–99 the courts in St. Petersburg and Moscow were abolished, but they were restored in 1802. In Vilnius and Zhitomir they were abolished in 1801. The Nadvornyi Sud in St. Petersburg and Moscow tried both criminal and civil cases involving persons from other cities who were in the capitals on personal or official business. It also heard the cases of raznochintsy (persons of no definite class) who had no immovable property in the provinces in which the capitals were located. The institution was abolished under the Judicial Reform of 1864.