Justice of the peace jurisdiction of offences under the chapter 16 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Issues of jurisdiction are always topical, for the judges’ working load affects the efficiency of the Justice of the Peace and federal judges. In spite of the fact that the Justice of the Peace have been functioning for about 12 years, the problems of diversity jurisdiction have not been resolved yet. Unfortunately, citizens and court employees can see that the magistrates are overloaded with civil, administrative and criminal cases; therefore, it is necessary to reallocate the load of the JP and the city judges. In the article the authors retrace the JP jurisdiction of criminal cases which include crimes against life and health (chapter 16 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) from the pre-revolutionary period until the present times.