Professional project of Russian notaries: from state control to self-autonomy and back

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 .