Development of Justice and Legal Culture of the Russian Population: The Past and the Present

Abstract

The paper considers the development of legal culture of the modern population claiming the status of developed and democratic society. The purpose of the study is to identify factors and conformity to the laws of history, which affected the revival of the jury trial in Russia. It is noted that the history of modern Russia is characterized by numerous reforms, conflicts and transformations in various areas of the society and the state, which substantially changed the image of the latter one. A particular emphasis is placed on the development and improvement of justice institutions, namely, the jury trial. It is known that the jury trial was introduced in Russia in 1864 and existed until 1917, and in 1991 it was revived again in some regions of Russia. The Stavropol Territory was among the first regions where it was readopted. The history of this region served the basis for the analysis of justice institutions and development of legal culture of the population through the comprehensive study of archival records. It is argued that the main feature and importance of the justice institution is its powers of authority exercised not through the representative bodies but through direct inclusion of any citizen able to become a juror into the justice activity. All citizens of the constitutional state are concerned with the administration of justice as one of the key sides of public life. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that in such societies the state policy is geared to the development of the legal state, improvement of legal activity and legal culture of citizens since importance of judicial system for the society is that the court guarantees the protection of rights and legitimate interests of all citizens. Keywords— justice; legal culture; jury trial; legal activity