Oblast Court

in the USSR, a court functioning in an oblast as a court of original, appellate, and supervisory jurisdiction. The court is elected by the oblast soviet of workers’ deputies for a five-year term and consists of a chairman, several deputy chairmen, members of the court, and people’s assessors. The court comprises civil and criminal divisions and a presidium. As a court of original jurisdiction, the oblast court considers complicated civil and criminal cases assigned to its jurisdiction by law. It also has the right to remove any case from the people’s courts of the particular oblast and consider it at the oblast court level. Cases tried by the oblast court may be appealed to the Supreme Court of the Union republic, and the oblast court has appellate jurisdiction over the people’s courts of the oblast. When functioning as a court of original jurisdiction, the oblast court consists of a presiding judge and two people’s assessors; cases on appeal are heard by three members of the oblast court. The presidium of the oblast court considers cases by way of supervision.

The various krais have krai courts, whose jurisdiction and organization are similar to those of the oblast courts.