Representation Development in the Russian Empire of the Pre-Reform Period

The article presents the author’s interpretation of the development of the institution of representation before the Judicial Reform of 1864. This paper was written in order to study the history of the Russian Bar. The author poses the question of at what moment the development of representation and advocacy in Russia began to develop. The author is trying to answer the question attracting various primary sources and opinions of historians. The author analyzes the process of the emergence and formation of the institute of attorneys — the first prototypes of modern lawyers. In general, the issue of comparing pre-reform attorneys and modern lawyers is very controversial, so the article also discusses this topic: the author presents the key characteristics of proxies and scriveners so that the reader can draw his own conclusions about the similarity of these institutions. The material under study allows us to trace the evolution of the institution of representation, and the use of an extensive methodological apparatus can contribute to a comprehensive study of this topic. The relevance of the work is manifested in the weak elaboration of the topic, since most researchers consider the history of the legal profession since the XIX century. Nevertheless, the author takes into account and analyzes the opinions of Russian researchers of different historical eras: both imperial and modern Russia. Methodologically, the study is based on the history of state and law of Russia and its terminological apparatus. Since students study the history of the emergence and development of various legal institutions as a part of the course, this article, according to the author, can be useful for an in-depth study of the history of advocacy.

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