Reception of the Russian Statute of Civil Procedure of 1864 in Lithuania during 1918–40

Abstract

The authors of this article examine historical reasons underlying the enactment of the Statute on Civil Procedure of Russia of 1864 in Lithuania after the declaration of independence in 1918. The Statute of 1864 became effective in 1883, when Lithuania was still part of Russian Empire. In 1918 Lithuania declared independence, but due to the fundamentally changed economic and social living conditions of the society it was impossible to restore the validity of the Third Lithuanian Statute of 1588, which was valid until 1840. It was therefore a logical step to receive the legal acts which were valid until August 1, 1914, including the Statute of 1864. The receipt of the Statute of 1864 is also justified by the fact that the Statute was a modern legal act and borrowed many progressive ideas from the civil procedure law of Western countries, especially from France. The authors, based on historical sources, also examine the problems of the interpretation and applications of the Statute of 1864 by the Lithuanian courts during 1918–40. Such problems were related to the new organization of the court system in Lithuania, lack of qualified lawyers, translation of the Statute from Russian language to Lithuanian language, lack of Lithuanian doctrine of law in the area of civil procedure, disagreement regarding the possibility of the application of the former case law of Russian courts, especially Russian Senate, etc. Nevertheless, the Statute has been successfully applied until the 1940 and it was one of the reason that the Lithuanian Code of Civil Procedure was not adopted until 1940. The Statute of 1864 was again rediscovered after 1990, when the restoration of Lithuanian independence was made, and important changes in the Code of Civil Procedure of 1964 were introduced. The Statute of 1864 was also analyzed during the preparation of the new Code of Civil Procedure of Lithuania of 2002.