Karl Theodor von Inama-Sternegg · 1906
Inama-Sternegg’s German-language review examines the Russian Ministry of Justice’s statistical yearbook for European and Asiatic Russia. He situates it within an established series:
Die Publikationen der russischen Justizstatistik reichen bis zum Jahre 1879 zurück.
English translation: The publications of Russian judicial statistics go back to the year 1879.
He praises the series’ development under Wladimir Feldt, especially its prompt publication and clear arrangement. His principal interest, however, lies in the economic evidence contained in judicial records. In contrast to the relatively limited criminal statistics, civil justice receives a treatment valuable beyond the study of court administration:
Dagegen ist die Statistik der Ziviljustiz etwas ausführlicher behandelt, ja sie bietet sogar manche wertvolle volkswirtschaftliche Einblicke, welche man selbst in vielen Justizstatistiken westeuropäischer Staaten vergebens sucht.
English translation: The statistics of civil justice, by contrast, are treated somewhat more fully; indeed they even offer many a valuable economic insight which one seeks in vain even in many judicial statistics of Western European states.
This comparison supplies the review’s organizing argument. Monetary valuations of litigation, insolvencies, and property transactions make judicial statistics a resource for economic inquiry, including subjects insufficiently documented in some Western European counterparts.
The discussion moves from ordinary civil litigation through commercial courts and enforcement to notarial business. Civil disputes before ordinary first-instance courts involved more than 260 million rubles in European Russia and nearly 10 million in Asiatic Russia. Regional totals and per-capita values permit comparisons of the geographical distribution of disputed wealth. St Petersburg and Moscow stand out in European Russia, while Irkutsk and Tomsk receive particular attention in Asia.
The commercial-court figures distinguish bills of exchange, written contracts, commercial books, disputes within trading houses, and accounts. Bills of exchange constitute the largest share of disputed values in St Petersburg, Moscow, and Odessa. Bankruptcy statistics add assets, liabilities, and costs; the Warsaw discussion further distinguishes balance-sheet valuations from liquidation results. Enforcement figures record amounts distributed to creditors. These successive categories shift attention from the nominal value of claims toward debt administration and actual recovery.
Notarial business provides a particularly important link between economic information and administrative reporting. Inama-Sternegg reasons that court fees functioning as transaction taxes, amounting to more than 15 million rubles, support an expectation of reasonably complete returns. The property statistics distinguish urban and rural purchases, partitions, gifts, mortgages, and judicial sales in the interior provinces and the Caucasus, with Russian Poland excluded. For Asiatic Russia, he emphasizes the predominance of towns in recorded property transactions and mortgages.
The review closes with a qualified assessment of administrative capacity. Although the reported sums are modest relative to the empire’s size, their systematic documentation indicates a degree of administrative order and discipline. Judicial statistics thus serve two connected purposes in his reading: they disclose economic transactions and demonstrate the organizational capacity required to render those transactions statistically visible.
This work was divided into 1 sections when it entered the library's research corpus—an apparatus for search and citation, not necessarily the author's own table of contents. Each title opens its summary.
Put a question to this work; the Librarian answers from its 1 sections and cites the passage.
Ask the Librarian