The Supreme Court of the RSFSR as a legal form of the supreme judicial authority: to the 100th anniversary of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

The 100th anniversary of the highest court instance of Russia determines the relevance of studying the Supreme Court of the RSFSR as a historical and legal phenomenon, formed as the highest judiciary authority on fundamentally different organizational approaches than before. The article studies certain specifics of the highest instance of Russia’s judiciary, including legal forms of its organization, activities of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, structural intra-system relationships, and its place and role in the development of Russia’s statehood. The research offers analysis of theoretical concepts and judicial legislation during the preceding period between the two judicial reforms (of 1864 and of 1922). It aims at revealing certain features of the legal model of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR in 1922 as the first created national form of an organizationally autonomous court of the highest judicial instance in terms of its place and role in the system of Soviet justice. The research methodology is based on comparative-legal and historical-legal approaches. The author refers not only to legal acts, but also to publications of the party and Soviet leaders of the first years of the Soviet power, devoted to the issues of formation of a unified judicial system and its supreme body. The prerequisites for the formation of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR associated with requests for stability and clarity of the rule of law, uniformity of judicial practice in the conditions of the New Economic Policy have been highlighted. The article draws conclusions concerning the legal status of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, highlights its features as the highest level in a unified judicial system, and determines the legal nature, the place and the role of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR in the system of judiciary, where it was endowed with organizational and managerial powers in respect of people’s investigators, collegium of defense counsellors, bailiffs and public notary offices.