148 PLANS OF REFORMThe Chancellor of the Empire is the Duma's President ex officio. The
Duma of the Empire receives yearly accounts of the actions of the
ministers, and of the financial and legislative situation. However, the
Duma is very limited in the exercise of its function of control and
supervision of ministerial acts, as it can consider only those questions
which the government cares to submit to it. All other affairs remain
strictly outside the Duma's competence. The Duma has no legislative
initiative or power at all, as these are the exclusive prerogatives of
the Sovereign Power (i.e" the Emperor) acting through the central
government institutions. The State Duma, like the provincial and local
ones, may only present petitions and inform the government on the
country's condition and needs.^1 Only in case the Duma feels that a
legislative act violates the fundamental laws of the realm, or when an
executive agent refuses to acknowledge responsibility for his actions,
may it propose on its own initiative (after informing the monarch)
legislative action leading to the impeachment of the responsible minister
or official. In short, the State Duma is to be merely a consultative and
deliberative body with advisory opinion only. It gives its opinion and
information only on those problems which the government may desire
to refer to it. 2 Speransky was not entirely unaware of the possibility
that such restricted functions might render the Duma a meaningless
legislative institution. Yet, he did want to keep many areas of govern-
ment out of the hands of a "representative" assembly. In the final
analysis, the high-sounding "legislative" body is merely an institution
to which executive officers of the Crown may report on their admin-
istration and which acts as an "informant" of the country's desires and
condition.
The Plan's proposals for the judiciary - the guardian of order and
legality - follow pretty closely the formal organization of English jus-
tice on the county level. In each territorial subdivision - township,
district, province - a court is to be established along the following
lines: a group of "jurymen," elected by the respective Dumas, who
deliberate on the facts of the case; the panel of "jurymen" is chaired
by a Court President appointed by the Minister of Justice from among
a list of twenty candidates submitted by each Duma, The President sees
to it that the proper forms of legal procedure are strictly adhered to,
but he does not participate in the decisions on the facts of the case. The
most important benefit of the system, in Speransky's eyes, is that by
1 This too is very similar to the Slavophile conception of the functions of a
Zemskii Sobor.
2 On the Duma, see Plan 1809, pp. 77-79.