Russia's Legal Trajectories

Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. 2018. Vol. 19. No. 3. P. 469–508.

Borisova T. Y., Burbank J.

The authors argue that the particular geopolitical conditions in which the Russian polity emerged and expanded, its imperial character, and the methods and mechanisms of rule employed by imperial elites produced a distinct legal culture whose fundamental elements have endured for centuries, despite major disruptions and changes in the political system. The authors define these fundamental elements as: 1) the intertwining of sovereignty, law, and legal personnel in ways in which law is viewed mainly pragmatically, functions instrumentally, and is perceived as emanating from a sovereign ruler, and those who implement the law are bound to the ruler primarily through personal loyalties and connections;2) a “dual track” legal system under which legal matters and disputes arising from everyday life are handled through a flexible and  regularly adapting constellation of legal and administrative bodies that are differentiated to reflect a diverse population; 3) a tri-partite constellation of intermediaries who help to make, implement, interpret, and apply the laws who are mainly practitioners rather than trained jurists; 4) distinct practices of making law and disseminating knowledge of legal processes that emphasize technicality and formalism in the implementation of the law but leave room for flexible application by intermediaries; and 5) more recently, the emergence of a critical discourse over law through which especially non-ruling elites protest their exclusion from sovereignty.

Keywords: legal history, legal profession, international law, sovereignty, Russian History

Publication based on the results of: Transformation of Regimes of Governing Diversity: Identities in Imperial and (Post-)Colonial Context (2018)