University of British Columbia Press Defending Rights in Russia: Lawyers, the State, and Legal Reform in the Post-Soviet Era (Law and Society)

Pamela Jordan’s engaging study of the Russian bar (advokatura) provides a richly textured portrait of how, after the USSR’s collapse, practising lawyers called advocates began to assume new, self-defined roles as contributors to legal reform and defenders of rights in Russia. Jordan argues that the post-Soviet advokatura as an institution gained more, although not complete, autonomy from the state as it struggled to redefine itself as a profession and suggests that advocates’ work is supporting the growth of civil society and the strengthening of human rights in Russia. However, she also warns that such gains could be reversed if the Putin regime continues to flout due process rights. Review Jordan’s book represents a major contribution to the study of Russian legal institutions, as well as post-Soviet Russian politics. As such, the book should be of interest to Russian specialists as well as a broader audience interested in comparative law and the development of civil society. Her exemplary scholarship includes thorough consideration of available literature as well as numerous interviews with leading Russian advocates and jurists… Nevertheless, Jordan’s comprehensive discussion of legal hisotyr and current practices will serve as mandatory reading for scholars interested in Russian politics and understanding Russia’s uneven attempts – both past and present – at legal reform. Author: William E. Pomeranz, PhD, Attorney, Reed Smith, Washington DC Source: Law and Politics Books Review, Vol. 16, No. 3 The struggle for legal reform in Russia, the famous Russian political cases, and the behavior of Russian courts get a lot of attention, but Russian lawyers themselves rarely do. How their role is changing, who sets the standards for their education and admission to the guild, how they earn a living, and what their contribution has been to modernizing the Russian legal system are matters little studied -- until Jordan's efficient account. Author: Robert Levgold Source: Foreign Affairs, November/December 2005 Review The scholarship is exemplary ... The book offers new and important insights and will be of interest to most students of Russian studies as well as specialists in comparative law and politics. All readers will come away from this work with a much fuller understanding of the depth of change in the legal and social fabric of Russia in the 1990s. Author: Eugene Huskey; William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Political Science and Russian Studies, Stetson University; author of Russian Lawyers and the Soviet State: The Origins and Development of the Soviet Bar and Presidential Power in Russia From the Author Pamela A. Jordan is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan. About the Author Pamela A. Jordan is an assistant professor in theDepartment of History at the University of Saskatchewan.