Implementation of Work and the First Results of the Activity of Notary and Advocacy on the Territory of the Reichskommisariat “Ukraine” (1940–1942)

Abstract

The activity of the occupation administration on the territory of Ukraine during the Second World War has always been the object of research by domestic and foreign historians. But due to the lack of sources and literature, all these studies mainly related to the period when the work of the bar and notary was already established, and the vicissitudes of their creation and the first stages of activity were not covered. The purpose of the publication is to research the process of creation of notary institutions and advocacy on their activities at the initial stages of occupation in the territory of the Reichskommissariat "Ukraine". in addition to the actual punitive methods of the occupied population's appeasement, the German occupation administration resorted to fairly civil and legal methods, legal consultations, law offices and notary bodies were created. All of them played an important role in social life and solving urgent legal issues. These institutions dealt not only with the protection of citizens' rights in court, but also with issues of alimony payments, establishing the right to inheritance, and issuing some lost or destroyed documents. The notary performed quite a large list of functions of this institution in the modern sense. Of course, it is important to note the fact that the jurisdiction of Ukrainian courts mainly included misdemeanors or crimes of minor gravity. Cases where the state was one of the parties, serious and especially serious crimes -all this was under the jurisdiction of German courts, therefore it is impossible to speak of the full-fledged work of the Ukrainian bar during the German occupation of Ukraine, but a certain part of the rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen was preserved by the German authorities. It is worth paying attention to the fact that these bodies and institutions were formed relatively quickly in the conditions of military operations and the establishment of an occupation regime on the territory of Ukraine.