The Study Of The Russian Lawyers,1864-1904

There are three major transition periods in the history of the Russian judicialreform——Judicial reform in1864, Soviet judicial reform and judicial reform in1991. The historians highly value the judiciary system after the judicial reform in1864. Boris Mironov called this judiciary system the most perfect judiciary system inthe history of Russia in the Social History of Tsarist Russia. Although Peter the Greatand Catherine the Great adjusted the judicial system, the judicial system was notindependent of administrative system. In1864, Russia which modeled on Frenchjudicial system, carried out the judicial reform and established the independence ofthe judiciary. Among these, the reform of judicial organizations and litigation systemwere much in evidence, the Judicature Act in1864which set up the jury court,procuratorial organ, lawyer system and faculty of advocate, had determined theinvestigation system, public trial system, adversary system, judicial hierarchy and soon. In the next50years, Russia formed the normalization team of lawyers. Before the1914, there were16500lawyers in Russia, the number of which was more than that ofSoviet Union. Russian lawyers participated in all types of litigation the number ofwhich was420cases during1886to1904. Moreover, Russian lawyers before theOctober Revolution earned wide recognition among lawyer counterparts at home andabroad, the Russian green bag became the center of top-grade lawyers.At that time, the well-known lawyers like Spasovich and Plevako pursued thejudicial fairness and justice at law, who enjoyed high reputation in Russia, even theworld. Of special note is that Aleksandrov pleaded for Zasulich which won somecompensate in1878. Karabchevsky pleaded for Sazuonuofu which saved his neck.The counsels’ speech in court were printed into the booklets nationwide. Contrarily,no lawyer had such achievement and influence during the Soviet era. The status and roles of the Russian lawyers had minimized since the1920s when the number oflawyers fell sharply. Until the early1990s, it established an independent green bagunder the game of State and judicial officers. From this, it can be seen that the judicialreform was followed by the appearance of green bag which declined along with thetransition of judicial reform.This paper is divided into five parts. The first one introduces that the RussianEmpire established the disciplines and norms of green bag. Meanwhile, the limit ofgreen bag made it defective. The second one shows that green bag tried to expand therights which given by Judicial Act in1864. The third one described the despoticgovernment limited the rights of lawyers after the lawyer system, which tried to expelthe green bag by various ways, prevent talents from entering into green bag. Thefourth one introduces the attitude of Russian society to green bag. The fifth oneresearched that the relation between the legal profession and revolutionary moves.The Russian lawyers sympathize the revolutionary moves, who also helped therevolutionaries, but merely joined in the fight against the dictatorial system.In a word, this paper shows the development of green bag, and tries to reveal thedevelopment characteristic of Russian green bag. Thus, it makes a a new review andunderstanding of the judiciary system after the judicial reform in1864.