Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Persistent Question of Legal Aid in the Professional Development of Russian Lawyers

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Histories of Legal Aid

Part of the book series: World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence ((WHCCV))

Abstract

Russia has always been perceived as a historical outlier in terms of its relationship to the rule of law and the western legal tradition. The pursuit of legal aid, however, demonstrates that Russia has faced many of the same challenges that have beset other legal systems. Russia has had to confront how to deliver legal assistance to the most vulnerable parts of the population, how to deal with non-licensed and other lay attorneys, and how to endow the legal profession with a sense of public service that sees providing affordable (and often free) legal advice as an essential part of a lawyer’s calling. What separates Russia from other countries is the high degree of politicisation that has accompanied the expansion of legal aid. Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet lawyers have provided free or low-cost representation in a wide variety of controversial, high profile cases, challenging the state’s authoritarian practices and invariably provoking a backlash against the bar and leading lawyers. The Russian state has never embraced the challenges that accompany an independent system of legal aid, thereby raising the perennial question of how much legal assistance—and assertion of individual, political, economic, and social rights—is the Russian government willing to tolerate.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Belikov (1865), pp. 274–275.

  2. 2.

    Rosenshield (2005), p. 53.

  3. 3.

    Pomeranz (1996), pp. 588–589.

  4. 4.

    Chernomordik (1916), pp. 32–36.

  5. 5.

    Pomeranz (1999), pp. 257–262.

  6. 6.

    Neuberger (1996), pp. 295–310; Pomeranz (1993), pp. 321–340.

  7. 7.

    Russia was not the only country to voice concern about the proliferation of unlicensed lawyers. See the chapters in this book by Hiroki Kawamura and Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen.

  8. 8.

    Berenshtam (1903), pp. 1–33.

  9. 9.

    Berenshtam (1903), pp. 32–33.

  10. 10.

    Gessen (1904), pp. 105–106; Pomeranz (1993), pp. 338–339.

  11. 11.

    Pomeranz (1999), pp. 251–252.

  12. 12.

    Pomeranz (1996), pp. 593–596.

  13. 13.

    Berenshtam (1906), p. 5.

  14. 14.

    Berenshtam (1906), p. 84.

  15. 15.

    Otchet (1910), pp. 347–348.

  16. 16.

    Otchet (1915), pp. 227–340.

  17. 17.

    Pomeranz (1996), pp. 600–604, 606–608.

  18. 18.

    Ugrimova and Volkov (2004), pp. 14–17.

  19. 19.

    Mandel’shtam (1931), pp. 51–53.

  20. 20.

    Kel’ner (2015), pp. 43–46.

  21. 21.

    Lindenmeyr (2019), p. 112; Otchet (1915), pp. 297–307.

  22. 22.

    Khvostov (1916), pp. 913–914.

  23. 23.

    Jordan (2005), p. 32.

  24. 24.

    Jordan (2005), p. 35.

  25. 25.

    Jordan (2005), pp. 39–40.

  26. 26.

    Feifer ([1964] 2000), p. 252.

  27. 27.

    Feifer ([1964] 2000), p. 154.

  28. 28.

    Feifer ([1964] 2000), pp. 246, 252. See also Kaminskaya (1982), p. 62.

  29. 29.

    Feifer ([1964] 2000), pp. 234–235; Kaminskaya (1982), pp. 29–31; Rand (1991), p. 12.

  30. 30.

    Feifer ([1964] 2000), p. 105.

  31. 31.

    Smith (1978), p. 105.

  32. 32.

    Smith (1978), pp. 64–65, 72.

  33. 33.

    Kaminskaya (1982), pp. 31–32.

  34. 34.

    Kaminskaya (1982), pp. 313–319.

  35. 35.

    Hendley (1996), pp. 134–135.

  36. 36.

    Hendley (1996), p. 135.

  37. 37.

    Rand (1991), p. 9.

  38. 38.

    Rand (1991), p. 13.

  39. 39.

    Jordan (2005), p. 66.

  40. 40.

    Jordan (2005), p. 67.

  41. 41.

    Bocharov and Moiseeva (2016), pp. 183–184.

  42. 42.

    Law on advocate activities and the advokatura (2002), art. 1,3; Jordan (2005), p. 123.

  43. 43.

    Jordan (2005), p. 126; Mazaev (2010), p. 48.

  44. 44.

    Aleksandrov (2018); Kornia (2019).

  45. 45.

    Informatsionnaia spravka (2017), pp. 5–6.

  46. 46.

    Bocharov and Moiseeva (2016), p. 61.

  47. 47.

    Burmitskaya (2012), p. 55.

  48. 48.

    Rekomendatsii Soveta (2019).

  49. 49.

    Kornia (2017); Karel’skim zashchitnikam … (2017).

  50. 50.

    Iamshanov (2012); Kirovskie advokaty … (2018).

  51. 51.

    Kornia (2017).

  52. 52.

    Bocharov and Moiseeva (2016), pp. 124–127.

  53. 53.

    Borot’sia … (2018).

  54. 54.

    Pavlov (2019).

  55. 55.

    Bolee … (2019).

  56. 56.

    Jordan (2005), p. 78; Chumakova (2019), pp. 75–76.

  57. 57.

    Hendley (2017), pp. 195–196.

  58. 58.

    Kornia (2016).

  59. 59.

    Jordan (2005), pp. 127–195.

  60. 60.

    Different law offices within the advokatura conduct pro bono activities as well. According to a 2017 survey, advocates provided pro bono advice to 227,835 citizens. Informatsionnaia spravka (2017), p. 7.

  61. 61.

    See Free Legal Advice (2021).

  62. 62.

    Chumakova (2019), pp. 65–66; Mazaev (2010), p. 28–29. For the 2019 statistics on cases handled by the procuracy under supervision, see General Procuracy’s Office (2019).

  63. 63.

    A general description about the Association’s legal aid services can be found at the Association of Lawyers of Russia (2021).

  64. 64.

    Liudi … (2019).

  65. 65.

    Chumakova (2019), pp. 267–271.

  66. 66.

    Chumakova (2019), p. 72; Law on Free Legal Assistance (2011), art. 27.

  67. 67.

    Law on Free Legal Assistance (2011), art. 24.

  68. 68.

    Informatsionnaia spravka (2017), p. 6.

  69. 69.

    Informatsionnaia spravka (2017). For a regional breakdown of budgets and services provided under the state system of free legal assistance, see Chumakova (2019), pp. 132–137.

  70. 70.

    Chumakova (2019), p. 153. For regional breakdowns of participating advocates in the state system of free legal aid, see ibid., pp. 145–153.

  71. 71.

    Chumakova (2019), pp. 168–175, 177–179.

  72. 72.

    Kornia (2019); Kuznetsova (2019).

  73. 73.

    Khodzhaev (2015).

  74. 74.

    Concept Paper (2017); Carle et al. (2018), pp. 299–302.

  75. 75.

    Raiskii and Zanina (2017); Ministr iustitsii … (2019); Carle et al. (2018), p. 289.

  76. 76.

    Semeniako (2018); Kuznetsova and Nagornaia (2018).

  77. 77.

    Vladimir Pligin … (2020).

  78. 78.

    Glikin (2020).

  79. 79.

    Pavlova (2020).

  80. 80.

    Raiskii and Zanina (2017); Roman (2019). The bar’s legal status as a provider of qualified legal assistance—instead of an enterprise—at least initially excluded advocates from receiving any financial help from the anti-crisis measures taken by the government during the corona virus; see Sergeev and Boronov (2020).

  81. 81.

    Sergeev and Boronov (2020).

  82. 82.

    Uproshchentsy … (2017); Carle et al. (2018), p. 297.

  83. 83.

    Carle et al. (2018), p. 299.

Bibliography

Legislation and Proposed Regulation

Online Sources

Printed Sources

Secondary Literature

  • Burmitskaya, Elena. 2012. World’s Models of State-Funded Legal Aid in Criminal Cases: What Can Russia Borrow? Lambert Academic Publishing. https://www.pilnet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Legal-Aid-Russia-Book.pdf. Accessed 1 Mar 2021.

  • Hendley, Kathryn. 1996. Trying to Make Law Matter: Legal Reform and Labor Law in the Soviet Union. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2017. Everyday Law in Russia. Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, Pamela A. 2005. Defending Rights in Russia: Lawyers, the State, and Legal Reform in the Post-Soviet Era. Vancouver: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neuberger, Joan. 1996. ‘Shysters’ or Public Servants? Uncertified Lawyers and Legal Aid for the Poor in Late Imperial Russia. Russian History 23 (1–4): 295–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pomeranz, William E. 1993. Justice from Underground. The History of the Underground Advokatura. Russian Review 52 (3): 321–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1996. Legal Assistance in Tsarist Russia: The St. Petersburg Consultation Bureaus. Wisconsin International Law Journal 14 (3): 586–610.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 1999. ‘Profession or Estate’? The Case of the Russian Pre-Revolutionary Advokatura. Slavonic and East European Review 77 (2): 240–268.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenshield, Gary. 2005. Western Law, Russian Justice: Dostoevsky, the Jury Trial, and the Law. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Gordon B. 1978. The Soviet Procuracy and the Supervision of Administration. Leiden: Sijthoff & Noordhoff.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ugrimova, T.A., and A.G. Volkov. 2004. “Stoi v zavete svoem…” Nikolai Konstantinovich Murav’ev: Advokat i obshchestvennyi deiatel’. Moscow: AMA Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, Washington, D.C., USA

    William E. Pomeranz

Authors
  1. William E. Pomeranz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William E. Pomeranz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chicago Kent College of Law, Chicago, IL, USA

    Felice Batlan

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Marianne Vasara-Aaltonen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Pomeranz, W.E. (2021). The Persistent Question of Legal Aid in the Professional Development of Russian Lawyers. In: Batlan, F., Vasara-Aaltonen, M. (eds) Histories of Legal Aid. World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80271-4_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80271-4_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-80270-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-80271-4

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation