ABSTRACT
In introducing trial by jury as part of the 1864 Judicial Reform, reformers in Russia sought to transform the practice of their courts. The involvement of juries-most fully developed within the adversarial tradition of Anglo-American countries-forced Russia to abandon its pure inquisitorial procedure, marked by office reviews of written documents. Instead, the Reform replaced that procedure with public trials that featured a verbal contest between two attorneys, played out before an audience of judges, jury, and spectators. All the same, Russian jurists proved unwilling to abandon the inquisitorial tradition entirely. As a result, trial by jury led in Russia, as it had in France, to a new and peculiar blend of the two traditions.
