The court system and the military-police order

Under the khanates, qozis had no fixed district: a claimant went to a qozi he trusted, and a dissatisfied party appealed to the qozikalon. The empire abolished the post of qozikalon but did not fully abolish qozi and biy courts: it kept them and set up supervision over them. Qozi courts heard claims up to 100 roubles, while the congress of people’s judges decided cases up to 1000 roubles. According to the textbook, because the administration interfered in elections, qozis and biys became dependent on it and bribery spread. The Statute of 1886 replaced uyezd courts with justices of the peace, and in 1898 okrug courts and the Tashkent Court Chamber were established; appeals against their rulings went to the empire’s Senate. The Statute of 1881 gave the governor-general the right to introduce “heightened” or “emergency” protection on his own authority; from 1892 to 1916 Turkestan was in such a state. Local men were not conscripted: according to the textbook, the government feared that they would learn military skills and the use of modern weapons.