Beyond the Bar: Russian Law, Part 2: Republics, Rays, and Oblasts - Oh My!

• Citation: Vol. 36-6
• Year: 2025

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Beyond the Bar: Russian Law, Part 2: Republics, rays, and oblasts - oh my!

Vol. 36 Issue 6 Pg. 21

South Carolina Lawyer

May, 2025

BY WARREN MOISE

You might wonder how Russia, the largest country in the world, was governed at all before modern communications appeared. Take, for example, the condition of the Russian roads. After all, significant stretches of the mighty, mighty Trans-Siberian Highway (built essentially with slave labor) devolves down to little more than a country path leading through a pleasant field. See Sasha Yan Shin, "How Long Does It Take To Drive Across Russia?"

Catherine's Code of Laws

Considering herself enlightened, Catherine the Great worked on a code of laws called Nakaza for two years. Its full name was the ' Instruction of Her Imperial Majesty Catherine the Second for the Commission Charged with Preparing a Project of a New Code of Laws." (July 30, 1767). She believed it to have been her greatest achievement as an enlightened ruler. The Instruction's "Articles" were split into 20 chapters and 526 articles.

The current Russian Federal Model

Catherine's Nakaza attempted to decentralize and reform the Russian government and society at large. Her idea of decentralization of Russia arguably continues today though it's hard to tell what's going on in Russia due to its secretive way of doing things. Russia has a federal system together with federal courts and forums. Beneath the federal system are "lower" courts such as republics, krays, and oblasts See generally Liana Miate, 'Reforms of Catherine the Great" (Dec. 15, 2023).

The Russian Federation is composed of 89 equal subjects, each with varying levels of autonomy and specific administrative roles. These subjects fall into six categories: 24 republics, nine krays (territories), 48 oblasts (regions), one autonomous oblast, four autonoous okrugs, and three federal cities. (It sounds like the wait list at a Star Wars bar.)

There is also, a Jewish autonomous District on the Russia-Chinese border, that was seen, for a time at least, as an alternative to Israel as a Jewish homeland. It still exists today. See Colin Shindler, "The History of Birobidzhan, The Jewish Land on the Russia-China Border," Jerusalem Post (Aug. 18, 2023). However it did not work out the way that Joseph Stalin anticipated when he declared Brobidzhan the "the first official Jewish homeland."

Russia's contemporary judicial setup

Like many national contemporary judicial systems, Russia's courts are set up to administer, to interpret, and to apply indigenous law.

Due to constraints on the length of this column, I'll give a very-brief overview of Russia's current judiciary and touch on some the basics. Note that I said "current," as Russia's courts and other aspects of government have bounced around over the years.

For starters, there is the Constitutional Court and Supreme Court at the top of the judicial ladder. The district courts are the primary criminal trial courts, and the regional courts are the primary appellate courts. The judiciary is controlled by the All-Russian Congress of Judges and its Council of Judges, and its management is aided by the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court.

By the way, a critical aspect of the Russian Federation's judiciary is its federal criminal courts and its military courts. In my last column, I looked at the problem of Russian judges holding trials in secret. Coincidentally, today, as I prepare to email this column to the South Carolina Bar, the internet wires are burning hot with news of Roman Ivanishin, a Russian soldier who had allegedly defected from the Russian army to the Ukrainians. The legal community was confused about the details because the judge had held the trial in secret. Standard operating procedure for the Federation. But cf. Kathryn Hendley, 'Everyday Law in Russia" (2017).

Being called to the Bar in the Russian Federation

The judicial reform of Tsar Alexander II was instituted in 1864. It was abolished by the Communists after the October Revolution in 1917.

To be a juror, one must be must be at least 25 years old, legally competent, and have no criminal record.

A jury trial is provided for by the constitution of Russia but for criminal cases only and pursuant to certain court-provided procedures defined by Russian law. There have been complaints of judges' favoritism, overturning jury verdicts, and dismissal of trials by judges when a jury indicates skepticism about the trial.

In Russia, lawyers such as ourselves would typically be referred to as "advocates." To sit for the bar exam, one must have a legal education and two years of experience performing in the legal field after graduation, or a training program in a law firm after completing post-graduate study. Although the bar admission test is both written and oral, oddly enough, the primary examination test is oral. The written exam takes place in the form of testing on a computer and includes ethical questions. After three years, an advocate can hang out her own shingle and practice on her own.

Stare what?

There is one important difference between American courts and those of the Russian Federation. Unlike in common-law trials, stare decisis is not a valid legal doctrine in the Russian Federation. Thus the rulings can become contradictory, and law relied upon at the outset of a trial might be discarded by the judge at the end of the trial. As Michael Jackson (R.I.P.) might've said, "Hoo!"

And in conclusion

Putting aside the inquisitorial nature of how Russian law is practiced, here's one final example of why we do NOT want to practice law there.

It involves a high-profile trial in Russia. See Allen Pusey, "Even Routine Law Practice is Difficult and Dangerous in Russia," Am. Bar A'ssn. Journal (July 5, 2009) (Ethan Burger).

The courtroom ... brimmed with lawyers during the trial of four men accused of murdering Anna Politkovskaya, a reporter for the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, gunned down in 2006 at . . . her Moscow apartment.

The newspaper had paid a high price for investigating into political corruption. In 2000, another Nova-ya reporter was beaten to death with hammers in Moscow. Three years later, the paper's managing editor died mysteriously from something causing his skin to peel off. For the lawyers gathered in court, the trial of those accused in Politkovskaya's murder was itself a victory. The very fact there was a trial at all signaled that the rule of law finally mattered in Russia.

Then, cell phones began to ring in the courtroom; Politkovskaya's attorney, Stanislav Markelov, had been murdered. A young Novaya Gazeta intern walking with him was also murdered.

Markelov, was both a founder and president of Russia's Rule of Law Institute. His murder had the imprimatur of a professional hit - shot point-blank in a crowd of people on a busy street by a gun topped with a silencer.

To his colleagues, Markelov's killing came as no surprise. The only question was why. Was his assassination related to a Chechen murder, in which he was representing the victim's family? Or to the case of an environmentalist targeted by neo-Nazis? Or linked to attempts to stop the development of a mixed-use luxury real estate project? ....

For Russian lawyers, at least when this was going on, life is difficult, even dangerous. Even attorneys who handle run-of-the-mill corporate work—including real estate deals, corporate contracts, environmental regulations and tax mat-ters—have reported threats and harassment, according to the Moscow-based think tank Memorial Human Rights Center.

Though few will speak of Markelov's murder for attribution — or even allow their exact words to be quoted—American lawyers who once practiced in Russia say the law there has become increasingly politicized and unpredictable.

God bless America.

PS Thanks to Liana Miate, Colin Shindler, and Allen Pusey for their contributions to this column as source material and was used liberally.