Justices of the peace in the European legal tradition were mostly a group of non-professional judges, often lacking academic legal education, enjoying the trust of the local community and deciding cases ‘of low gravity’ in an informal procedure. Some form of justices of the peace existed in every piece of territory of interwar Poland reclaimed from the former partitioning powers. The research presented in the article focuses on former Prussian Territories – the Appeal District of Poznań [Posen], and analyses the practical experiences of ‘judices of the peace’ functioning in the light of administrative and supervisory court files deposited in the archive in Poznań. The author reflects on three main issues. Firstly, the procedure of justices of peace appointments is presented
in detail. Secondly, challenges and problems with the quality of their work – pointed out by their supervisors – is discussed. Thirdly, their impartiality and relations with professional judges, court staff,
trial participants, and especially local communities is assessed. In the end, the author attempts to explain why the functioning of ‘justices of the peace’ in former Prussian territories in interwar Poland was seen as a failure.