ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the origins and the development of judicial reform in Russia in the 1990s. It begins with an explanation of why strong and autonomous courts matter for democratic government and market economies; continues with a capsule portrait of the weak and dependent state of courts and judges in the last decades of Soviet power; and concludes with an account of the politics of judicial reform in the new Russian state. The judicial reform measures adopted in the Soviet period, which at the time seemed an important beginning, were quickly overtaken by more radical measures. Finally, a huge issue, intimately connected to most aspects of judicial reform, including its prehistory—the realization of steps already taken as well as new initiatives—was the massive underfinancing of the courts. In the late Soviet period, courts were underfinanced, and reformers began complaining about the consequences of poverty in the courts.
