Rural court (сільський суд; sil's'kyi sud). A local court of the Hetman state that dealt with petty criminal and civil cases in a given village. The rural courts for Cossacks were separate from those for peasants. Cossacks appealed the decisions of their courts to company courts, and peasants appealed the decisions of their rural courts to city courts. The rural courts were abolished with the introduction of serfdom in the 18th century, when their function was assumed by the landowner.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]