Smesnyi Sud

Smesnyi Sud 

(mixed or joint court), in feudal Russia, a judicial body formed when the litigants were under the jurisdiction of different courts. The earliest mention of the smesnyi sud is in the Code of the Smolensk prince Rostislav. In the 14th and 15th centuries the smesnyi sud was a common occurrence, both in cases between persons from different principalities and in trials involving inhabitants of the same principality, one of whom was under the jurisdiction of a feudal lord with juridical immunity and the other of whom was subject to the local authorities, such as a namestnik (vicegerent) or a volost (small rural district) official. In the second half of the 16th century and in the 17th century, as the state apparatus of the Russian centralized state grew, the legal norms of the smesnyi sud became an anachronism. [23–1802–]