Institutional Determinants for Representation of Indigent Defendants: Evidence from Russia

Little is known about the motives of lawyers who provide free legal assistance in countries that lack both a developed professional community and developed institutions related to the rule of law. Based on a survey of 3,317 criminal defense lawyers (advokaty) in 35 regions of Russia, we analyze the provision of two types of free legal services: participation in legal proceedings “on appointment” (po naznacheniyu) and the provision of pro bono legal assistance. We show that work on appointment usually involves lawyers with low social capital and a lack of regular clients. In contrast, pro bono legal assistance is encouraged by lawyers’ organizations. It is typically provided by professionals with a high level of social capital and with values aimed at maintaining an excellent professional reputation. We conclude that the provision of free legal services might best be stimulated within the professional community rather than by the government.

Establishment of a Protection and Information Model by an Attorney on the Initial Stage of Defense in Criminal Cases

In this article, the author considers the defensive and informational model as a tool of criminal defense, which is recommended to be used at the stage of the lawyer's entry into the case, when the lawyer does not have information about the entire amount of information that the investigating authority has, both evidentiary and orienting.

The essence and goals of the defense in the criminal procedure

The article investigates questions about the essence of criminal defense, its goals and properties. The authors note that, for all its specifi city, criminal procedural protection has a number of properties inherent in any type of defensive activity, but at the same time its independence is the defi ning property of protection in criminal procedure. The article is devoted to the problems of scientifi c and legislative refl ection of the defense in the criminal procedure. Comparing the history of legal regulation of the defense in criminal proceedings in various European states, the authors come to the conclusion on the lack of the consistent and structural approach in those legislative attempts. At the same time, the article tries to classify scientifi c approaches to the goals and properties of the criminal defense. Based on the analysis of the current legislation, as well as literature, fi ve fundamental properties of the criminal defense (independence, aleatory, proficiency, sub legislative character, efficiency) are identified.

DEFENDING AGAINST SOCIAL MEDIA: HOW PUBLIC CRIMINAL DEFENSE HELPS US ADDRESS SOCIAL MEDIA GOVERNANCE

As justice-minded academics, we want to understand the role of social media in civil society with a vested interest in ensuring that social media serves a pluralistic society fairly and equitably. Gillespie (2018) has helped frame this task in terms of both governance of platforms and by platforms, but we also want to know what state governments do with social media (Gorwa, 2019). This paper focuses on how social media companies cooperate with state governments to hold users criminally liable, and the lessons this case bears for understanding and improving the fairness and equity of judicial governance. We draw on interviews with twenty public criminal defenders in NYC in which we asked: 1) where social media appears in their cases and the role it plays; 2) their access to user content and social media companies; and, 3) how they use social media as evidence and defend against it. We identified three problem areas around fair and equal access to the law. First, we heard concerns that the cooperation of social media companies was asymmetrical because companies worked almost exclusively with law enforcement. Second, public defenders were upset about overly broad search warrants that furnished the full contents of a suspect’s social media account. Third, public defenders complained about the use and admission of prejudicial evidence that played to negative, racial stereotypes of their clients. We suggest several reforms for judicial governance, including more nearly equitable cooperation practices, restrictions on search warrants, and admissibility protocols and disclaimers on admitted materials.