Ministry of Justice (Russia)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Russia's Ministry of Justice traces its origins to a single document signed by Tsar Alexander I on the 8th of September 1802. That manifesto, titled "On the establishment of ministries," created not just a ministry but also the post of Minister of Justice, and it bundled that role together with the office of Attorney General of the Russian Empire. The man who stepped into that dual role first was Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin, already serving as General Prosecutor. From that moment, one institution would sit at the centre of Russia's legal machinery across empires, revolutions, and republics. What did it actually do? How did it survive the October Revolution? And what does it look like today, headquartered on Zhitnaya Street in Moscow, with two powerful federal agencies under its command?

• 2. The Imperial Ministry

  ›

  Gavriil Derzhavin's ministry was handed a broad mandate from the start: prepare legislation, manage courts and prosecutors, and oversee the appointment, transfer, and dismissal of judicial officials. By 1864, Russia undertook a sweeping judicial reform, and the Ministry of Justice was at the centre of every stage. Its powers expanded substantially during that process, reaching into the administration of prisons, notaries, and the newly introduced offices of judges and jurors.

  The Act of the 16th of June 1884 stiffened penalties for embezzlement and theft of service, including crimes committed by members of the privileged classes, on the Ministry's proposal. A year earlier, on the 26th of May 1881, public executions were abolished at the Ministry's request. The same year, on the 19th of May 1881, the Ministry compiled rules to strengthen property rights in civil law.

  From 1881 onward, all legislative proposals from other government departments were sent to the Ministry of Justice before reaching the Council of State. The Ministry evaluated them both for legal soundness and for compatibility with existing law. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this work turned toward individual rights. A draft on probation appeared in 1903, described as a completely new and democratic institution for Russia. That same year brought disciplinary regulations on official misconduct, and in 1904 a draft on prison procedures for civil political prisoners was approved. Ministers also chaired the International Tribunal and sat on the permanent International Court of Arbitration in The Hague. They were required to submit personal or written reports to the Emperor each week on the status of assigned cases.

• 3. Revolution and Reinvention

  ›

  After the October Revolution of 1917, the Ministry of Justice was transformed into the People's Commissariat of Justice. The immediate practical task was implementing Decree No. 1 "On Court," which meant forming new courts and selecting the personnel to staff them. Writing new legislation became a central part of the Commissariat's work.

  On the 30th of January 1928, a resolution of the Communist Central Executive Committee brought the prosecutor directly under the Commissariat of Justice, and made the Minister of Justice Vice Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Republic. That arrangement did not last. In 1936, the prosecutor's office was separated into an independent agency, cutting back the Commissariat's reach considerably. Then in 1991, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Justice Ministry was dissolved entirely. The Russian Federation's Ministry of Justice was founded in its place, formally by renaming the Ministry of Justice of the Russian SFSR. Despite the break in political continuity, the institution claims an unbroken line of succession stretching back to Alexander I's manifesto of 1802.

• 4. How It Works Today

  ›

  Konstantin Chuychenko has served as Minister of Justice since the 21st of January 2020. The minister leads a central office staffed by seven deputies, overseeing departments covering constitutional law, civil and social law, international law and cooperation, non-profit organisations, legislative activities, and criminal and civil complaints divisions.

  Two subordinate executive federal agencies carry out enforcement on the ground. The Federal Penitentiary Service, known by its Russian abbreviation FSIN, handles the execution of criminal penalties. The Federal Bailiffs Service, or FSSP, enforces judicial decisions and other orders. The ministry's reach also extends to an unusual range of front-office bodies: the Russian Legal Academy, the State Legal Office, the Research Center of Legal Information, and the Russian Federal Forensic Center, which provides forensic examination services to courts and investigation bodies under the Code of Criminal Procedure and other procedural laws.

  The Ministry's governing framework is set out in a Presidential Decree from the 13th of October 2004, amended on the 15th of December 2016. Among its functions are state registration of civil status, regulation of advocacy and notarial activity, oversight of non-profit organisations including foreign non-governmental organisations and religious groups, and anti-corruption work carried out with the help of the Prosecutor General. As of the 16th of November 2010, the Ministry had accredited 828 individuals and 164 legal entities as independent experts for anti-corruption review of draft laws. The decision on each accreditation rests with the Minister or an authorised deputy, issued as an executive order.

  The Ministry's address is Zhitnaya Street 14 in the Yakimanka District of Moscow's Central Administrative Okrug. On the 12th of May 2008, the Federal Registration Service was removed from the Ministry's supervision and placed under the Ministry of Economic Development, later renamed the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre, and Cartography and eventually subordinated directly to the Government of Russia.