The dissertation deals with the concrete historical research of the content and form of the occupation judicial power in Galicia as a constituent part of the Nazi illegal totalitarian state regime that used the courts as instrument of repressions against the local population and as element of Hitler “new order” within the Ukrainian lands. Special research historiography and a source-book were drawn up, classified documents and information were put to light. Occupation court system in Galicia as a constituent part of the court system of the Polish General Governorship was studied; organisation and the activity of military, special, police, German and Higher German courts, non-German courts as well as the Procuracy, Advocacy and the Notariate were highlighted. The researcher, having analysed the court practice, came to the conclusion that there had been violations of the fundamental principles of justice in the activity of the occupation courts: the principles of courts and judges independence, irremovability of judges and adversarial procedures. The gist and peculiarities of law sources application by the occupation courts are clarified. It is proven that the Nazi occupation courts in Galicia for criminal prosecution applied the following sources of criminal law: the 1871 German Criminal Code, the 1877 German Code of Criminal Procedure, Normative Acts of the Third Reich, of the Polish General Governorship and District of Galicia. The peculiarity of their enforcement lied in the maximum criminal repression that envisaged the severest punishments – death penalties and long-term imprisonment. While considering civil cases, the occupation courts applied the 1896 German Civil Compilation, the 1887German Code of Civil Procedure, Normative Acts of the Third Reich and Polish General Governorship.
In the system of the occupation judicial bodies non- German courts ( grodskyi, circuit, appellate) courts are singled out; the activity of the professional judges of Ukrainian and Polish origin is analysed. The latter courts preserved certain attributes of justice, that is, participation of counsels, professional judges and instance consideration of cases. The Ukrainian and Polish languages were the languages of the court.
Archive documents, records and files were put into scientific circulation for the first time. They deal with professional activity of Ukrainian and Polish judges, counsels, Nazi control of their activity ( work), occupational ban for barristers of Jewish nationality who made up a considerable percentage among lawyers in Inter-War Poland.
