The Moralization of Guilt in Late Imperial Russian Trial by Jury

The Early Reform Era

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12072425
AutoresGirish N Bhat (autor de correspondencia)
Año1997
Volumen15
Número1
Páginas77-113
Fecha de publicación1997-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLaw and History Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0738-2480 • E-ISSN: 1939-9022
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/827706
OpenAlexW2044145893
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas14

Ever since the official promulgation of the judicial reform statutes of 1864 in late imperial Russia, a scholarly commonplace has been the reform's contribution to the remarkable emergence of several generations of brilliant Russian trial lawyers and an internationally famous tradition of outstanding judicial oratory during the half-century preceding the Bolshevik revolution. This impressive display of judicial learning and courtroom artistry occurred in the context of Western-style trial by jury, the reform's most daring innovation. Introduced in 1866 after two years of energetic preparation, Russia's system of trial by jury bequeathed to scholars the most powerful emblem of the post-1864 Russian legal order: the courtroom confrontation between the defense attorney ( zashchitnik ) and the state's prosecutorial agent, the procurator ( prokuror ). In this judicial clash, the defense counsel has represented the eloquent, keen-witted, Western-educated champion of the individual and even the “defender of public interests.” The procuratorial representative has come to embody the interests of a regime whose relentless and often undisguised statism belied the reform statutes' open proclamation of the principles of legality and the “rule of law.”

Context (archaeology · Jury · Jury trial · Political science · Politics · Proclamation · Promulgation · Reform movement · Statism · Statute · History · Jury Decision Making Processes · Law · Law in Society and Culture · Legal Education and Practice Innovations