Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal
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I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
Institutes of alternative dispute resolution and mediation in
particular have existed in Russian Federation since the end of the
fourteenth century. For the first time in Russian legislation on the
settlement of disputes by peaceful agreement was mentioned in the
Novgorod Birch bark manuscripts (1281-1313 years). Later
references of settlement agreements can be found in almost all major
legislation documents of Russian law: Pskov Judicial Charter in 1397,
Sudebnik of 1497, the Cathedral Code of 1649 et al.
Civil and criminal justice were not clearly separated from one
another at this period of time, and the “peace agreement” could be
possibly done in the big area of legal disputes, including both criminal
and civil offenses. Later, due to separation of civil and criminal
procedure process, the settlement agreement had been regarded
primarily as to an institution of civil procedure law. For quite a long
time (from 1775 to 1862) in Russia special courts existed, so called
“conscientious provincial courts” have been created by decree of
Catherine II. Proceedings in these courts took place with the
participation of intermediaries, whose purpose was to reconcile
differences between the parties. If the attempt at conciliation failed,
the dispute was then moved to the general court.
Anastasia Belyaeva graduated with a bachelor of law (LL.B) from Saint-Petersburg
State University Law Faculty in 2014 and graduated with a master of law (LL.M.) from
Cornell Law School in 2015.
