Abstract:
This article focuses on the development of the Russian notary
profession from the Soviet period to the present time.
Although notaries currently possess almost all attributes of
a mature legal profession, their professional autonomy is
substantially restricted by the state. There are strong
historical and cultural reasons for such a heavy
dependency on the state. In the Soviet Union, notaries
were an integral part of the state system. The transition to
a market economy after Perestroika opened a window of
opportunity for the full realisation of their professional
project. Indeed, Russian notaries initially had made
considerable progress in extending their jurisdiction and
consolidating their profession. However, since the end of
the 1990s, their professional project started to stagnate
demonstrating a tendency of moving back from a liberal to
a state-controlled profession. This article explores four key
factors which contribute to this tendency. First, the
shrinking of the notaries’ professional jurisdiction; second,
the strengthening of state control over pricing policy
applying to notarial services; third, the lack of consensus
among notaries themselves on what model of the
profession – autonomous or state-dependent – they need;
and fourth, public perceptions, partly fuelled by media,
about the incidence of nepotism and illegal practices
among notaries .
