The judiciary of the Republic took shape over many years. As a rule, the highest courts were placed in representative historical edifices. On the other hand, at least a dozen new seats were built for the other courts. Among the most representative edifices of the Second Republic is the building of the former District Court in Pinsk.

Interwar judiciary of the Republic
The structure of the judiciary in the Second Republic was not finally formed until 1929, when the Law on the Common Court System came into force. The general judiciary consisted of a network of township courts, formerly called peace or county courts (first instance in minor civil and criminal cases), 51 district courts (first instance in major criminal and civil cases and second instance from decisions of township courts), eight appellate courts (second instance from decisions of district courts and first instance in special cases specified by statute, e.g. espionage cases) and the Supreme Court, which heard appeals against decisions of the courts of second instance (cassations).

The supreme courts were generally placed in representative historical edifices. By contrast, at least a dozen new seats were built for district and municipal courts. These, especially the county courts, are among the most representative edifices of the Second Republic. One of these was the District Court in Pinsk.

Kazimierz Tolłoczko - architect of the Pinsk court
The architectural design of the Pinsk court was made by Kazimierz Tolloczko (1886-1960), a well-known Warsaw architect and graduate of the Lviv Polytechnic. In the interwar years he was the head of one of the departments in the Ministry of Public Works, until 1930 he lectured at the Warsaw Polytechnic, and also ran a private practice.

He was the author of many Warsaw realisations, including buildings for non-commissioned officers at Ułańska Street and officers at Czerniakowska and Inżynierska Streets, professors' houses at Brzozowa Street, the so-called journalist housing estate in Żoliborz, and Kolonia Akademicka at Narutowicza Square. In addition, he designed the District Court in Białystok and the Tadeusz Kościuszko Gymnasium in Łuck, as well as typical residential houses of the Military Lodging Fund realised in Skierniewice, Lida, Brześć nad Bugiem, Grajewo, Suwałki, Toruń, Bydgoszcz and Jarosław.

In designing large public utility buildings, Tołłoczko was a proponent of combining monumental features with far-reaching modernisation, even reaching functionalist designs. This combination is clearly visible in the court building in Białystok (1929-1932), with a symmetrically, conventionally shaped façade with a central risalit. The risalit is the modern equivalent of the classical columnar portico: it is regularly segmented with narrow lisiangle-like panels, while the side parts have been solved according to the Corbusier model, with window openings grouped horizontally. The extreme axes are accentuated by a full wall with panels decorated with antique reliefs (tablets with Roman sayings, framed by lictor rods).

Architecture of the Pinsk court building
The architectural concept of the Pinsk District Court has undergone some evolution. The first project, made in 1926, envisaged a block founded on the plan of the letter E. The façade had a somewhat monotonous expression, enlivened only by a horizontally rusticated ground floor and diamond-shaped bonia in the central part and corners. For unknown reasons, this austere, monumental proposal was not realised.

Two years later Tolłoczko produced another design, formally related to the Bialystok concept. The unusually elongated façade was to consist of several parts. The left part, bounded on both sides by staircase risers, was framed by windows in horizontal arrangements. The right part was resolved similarly to the risalit of the Bialystok court - it was framed by narrow panels, with the entrance in the axis and an antique bas-relief with Roman court symbols (lictor rods) above it.

The realisation version, made around 1930, was designed even differently by the architect. He returned to the concept of the central risalit, this time supporting its central part with large Ionic columns, while the outer axes were slightly protruding and the vertical division was abandoned. The side parts of the façade are articulated with flat lisens. The building as a whole, set on a pedestal and topped with a beam and attic, is of Classicist origin, but with a considerable degree of modernisation. This is evidenced by the flat, almost cartoonish divisions, the lack of any framing of the window openings and even the form of the columns - they are rather simple pillars with Ionic capitals.

At present, the building serves as the seat of the Pinsk Industrial and Pedagogical College.