The article is devoted to the way of life of a famous statesman of the Russian Empire, a Ukrainian of descent, a lawyer, one of the main founders of the court reform and a leader of peasant reforms of the second half of the XIX century, an interpreter, secret counselor Serhiy Ivanovych Zarudnyy. His origin, pedigree, civil service in the Ministry of Justice, in the State Chancellery, in the State Council, as a senator was studied. Attention was paid to his work in the commissions for the preparation of judicial reform, the development of the «Basic Provisions for the Transformation of the Judiciary in Russia» and the Judicial Statutes, which were approved in 1864. His role was proved in the creation of the world justice system, in the introduction of jury and the institute of attorneys in the Russian judicial system, in approving the principles of publicity, immediacy, and adversarial proceedings. Considerable attention is focused on the role of the statesman in the development of reform projects on the elimination of serfdom 1861. A special place is dedicated to the scientific work of S. Zarudnyy, in particular to his monographs, articles, a collection of materials on judicial reform entitled «The Case Зарудний of the Transformation of the Judiciary in Russia», organized in 74 volumes. It was noted that for his juridical and scientific work, contemporaries and biographers of S. Zarudnyy called him «the luminary of our judicial world», «leading figure of judicial reform», «father» and «soul» of the case of concluding judicial charters. The article substantiates the conclusion that S. Zarudnyy laid down the democratic principles of the judicial system and legal proceedings in the Russian Empire with his activities.
Church Legal Proceedings in the Russian Empire