About the book: 2023 / In modern historiography, the legal institutions of the late Russian Empire are often associated with arbitrariness and corruption. But is this true? What actually was the system shaped by the judicial reform of 1864? How did it contribute to the rapprochement of the outskirts of the state with its center and the integration of “others” into the composition of imperial society? In search of answers to these questions, Stefan B. Kirmse examines the legal practice of empire building and its impact on the rights of national minorities. The author shows how legal reform changed the interaction of citizens with the state in the 1860–1890s using the example of new legal institutions in the Crimea and Kazan province, two regions that stood out for their ethnic and religious diversity. By presenting the new judicial system as a field in which the interests of different subjects of law (from lawyers and officials to ordinary citizens) collided, the historian demonstrates how these subjects not only interacted with each other, but also influenced public policy. Stefan B. Kirmse is a senior researcher and research coordinator at the Leibniz Center for Modern Oriental Studies (Berlin), senior lecturer at the Berlin University. Humboldt.