Legal Corporation of the Russian Empire in the Late 19th – Early 20th Century: In Power, near Power, against Power

The article is devoted to the characteristic features of legal corporation in Russia in the late 19th – early 20th century. The complex structure of the community, the mechanisms of its reproduction, and a special style of thinking characteristic of it are particularly empathized by the author. Despite the fact that the legal community included representatives of various legal professions, they were united by a common university experience and a common understanding of law. Active stage in the formation of the corporation began after the 1864 Judicial Reform, which gave any university graduate the opportunity to choose the trajectory of their further career. From then on, a graduate was not obliged to serve exclusively in the authorities. Therefore, he could choose to provide legal assistance to society, which did not negate the fact that the representatives of the legal corporation periodically changed roles and were closely related to each other. It is stressed that the graduates of legal faculties undoubtedly played a leading role in the administrative system of the Russian Empire, since lawyers were the only ones who had the necessary professional skills to ensure proper functioning of the legislative mechanism. Moreover, they undoubtedly “soloed” in public circles, primarily for the reason that the university was a kind of “factory” for the production of lawyers and at the same time a kind of “forge” of the Russian general public. Legal corporation was the core of the political class of the Russian Empire in all its diversity. Representatives of this community simultaneously served in bureaucratic institutions and participated in the creation of opposition parties. Even those who did not take an immediate part in political life, in their daily activities formed the attitude of the public to the law and the ways of its implementation. To a large extent, this is explained not only by the institutional but also by the legal prerequisites for the formation of the legal corporation in Russia. At the end of the 19th century, law faculties of the metropolitan universities were doing a lot to eliminate the legist attitude to law, one way or another interpreting the phenomenon of the Rechtsstaat as an obvious example. The law was understood not as a set of material norms but as something more, something that arose from the legal consciousness of the population, from political ideals characteristic of the public. Within this framework, law was seen as a kind of action program for the future, and a lawyer was seen as a full participant in legal creativity rather than a keeper and instructor.

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