SUMMARY:

The article investigates the emergence of the system of local self-government and estate judicial institutions at the gubernia and district levels in the reign of Catherine II in the southeastern Russian empire. Following Jane Burbank, the author argues that local estate institutions that were established for the region’s different nationalities facilitated the emergence of a legal culture among the local population through their participation in these institutions. The author cites Tatar and Bashkir participation in local courts and argues that the combination of family and clan connections with service in the courts added to the authority of judicial institutions. The accessibility of state-organized courts also played a role in the development of legal culture. Seen as a sign of the progressive development of the administrative and legal unification of empire in the framework of Enlightened, absolutist monarchy, the emergence of judicial institutions based on estate structures secured relative social peace in southeastern Russia. The article draws upon many original sources.