Vera Zasulich’s case: On the issue of the balance of legal values in the history of domestic legal proceedings

Abstract

2024 marked the 160^th anniversary of the approval by Emperor Alexander II of the judicial statutes, which marked the formation of a new domestic judicial system. At that time, such key principles of judicial proceedings as transparency, competitiveness, lack of speech, independence of judges, presumption of innocence, separation of judicial power from administrative power were proclaimed at the highest legislative level. The legal profession appeared as an independent corporation of sworn attorneys, the prosecutor’s office received the functions of the public prosecution, and, not least in its importance, the jury court was established for the first time. Taking into account all the advantages mentioned above, in modern historiography, the judicial reform is often given a purely positive assessment, which is not an indisputable thesis. Using the example of Vera Zasulich’s extremely high-profile court case, the author of this article analyzes the consequences of Alexander II’s judicial reform, which was accompanied not only by successes, but also by a number of serious shortcomings. In particular, criminal proceedings turned out to be vulnerable to the influence of public opinion, and cases with political overtones, such as the Vera Zasulich trial, demonstrated the system’s unpreparedness for objective justice. Based on the results of the conducted scientific research, the author of the article concludes that the outcome of the trial was extremely ambiguous, which led not only to a surge of terror against Russian statesmen, but also once again highlighted the problem of the relationship between law and morality using the example of the activities of all participants in the justice system.

Keywords:

Vera Zasulich case, Russian Empire, Anatoly Fedorovich Koni, institute of jurors, judicial power, revolutionary movement in Russia, judicial reform of Alexander II, justice, judicial proceedings