When a case, whether civil or criminal, has been decided in the Regular Tribunals, there is no possibility of appeal in the strict sense of the term, but an application may be made for a revision of the case on the ground of technical informality.  To use the French terms, there cannot be appel, but there may be cassation.  If there has been any omission or transgression of essential legal formalities, or if the Court has overstepped the bounds of its legal authority, the injured party may make an application to have the case revised and tried again.* This is not, according to French juridical conceptions, an appeal.  The Court of Revision** (Cour de Cassation) does not enter into the material facts of the case, but merely decides the question as to whether the essential formalities have been duly observed, and as to whether the law has been properly interpreted and applied; and if it be found on examination that there is some ground for invalidating the decision, it does not decide the case.  According to the new Russian system, the sole Court of Revision is the Senate.

     * This is the procedure referred to by Karl Karl’itch, vide
     supra, p 37.

     ** I am quite aware that the term “Court of Revision” is
     equivocal, but I have no better term to propose, and I hope
     the above explanations will prevent confusion.

The Senate thus forms the regulator of the whole judicial system, but its action is merely regulative.  It takes cognisance only of what is presented to it, and supplies to the machine no motive power.  If any of the lower courts should work slowly or cease to work altogether, the Senate might remain ignorant of the fact, and certainly could take no official notice of it.  It was considered necessary, therefore, to supplement the spontaneous vitality of the lower courts, and for this purpose was created a special centralised judicial administration, at the head of which was placed the Minister of Justice.  The Minister is “Procureur-General,” and has subordinates in all the courts.  The primary function of this administration is to preserve the force of the law, to detect and repair all infractions of judicial order, to defend the interests of the State and of those persons who are officially recognised as incapable of taking charge of their own affairs, and to act in criminal matters as Public Prosecutor.

Viewed as a whole, and from a little distance, this grand judicial edifice seems perfectly symmetrical, but a closer and more minute inspection brings to light unmistakable indications of a change of plan during the process of construction.  Though the work lasted only about half-a-dozen years, the style of the upper differs from the style of the lower parts, precisely as in those Gothic cathedrals which grew up slowly during the course of centuries.  And there is nothing here that need surprise us, for a considerable change took place in the opinions of the official world during that short period.  The