In the Muromachi period, the right to judge criminal cases (the right to govern and judge) was decentralized from the bakufu to shugo (provincial constables), and to kokujin (local samurai) down to soson (a community consisting of peasans' self-governing association); in some cases, the soson, by exercising such a right, judged the criminal cases which took place in their community (jikendan).
室町時代になると、検断権（統治・裁判権）が幕府→守護→国人・惣村へと分散化していき、例えば惣村自体が検断権を行使する自検断も行われた。