Personnel of the Bar in Zakarpattia in the second half of the XIX –first half of the XX century

Abstract

The author has comprehensively researched the development of staffing of the Bar in Zakarpattia in the second half of the XIX – the first half of the XX century in the context of the influence on the Bar of the operating political and legal systems of foreign countries in Zakarpattia and the characteristics of the national Bar’s personnel. Archival documents not previously known to historical and legal science have been provided; legal analysis of the historical process of the development of legal norms concerning admission to the lawyer’s profession in Zakarpattia has been accomplished. The historical role of Zakarpattia lawyers in the processes of Zakarpattia development has been established.

It has been noted that nowadays the issues of the history of Zakarpattia Bar remain poorly researched. The study of the historical development of the staffing of the Bar in Zakarpattia has made it possible to better understand the general features of the establishment of advocacy in the region, which are conditioned by the historical, political and legal conditions of the development of Zakarpattia. In particular, one of the characteristics of historical features of the development of the staffing of the Bar in Zakarpattia during the research period was the presence of a large number of foreign lawyers from the territories of modern Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and others. This was determined by the content of the development processes of the intellectual class in Zakarpattia, where foreign political and legal systems in Zakarpattia did not generally contribute to the development of the Ukrainian intellectual class.

However, Ukrainian attorneys each time, when there was the question on the future historical fate of Zakarpattia, along with their main professional activities did not stay away from the processes of preservation and development of the Ukrainian national idea, they also were at the forefront of all processes of the Ukrainian national revival of people from Zakarpattia. Here the author sees their role in the processes of historical development of the region.

It has been generally noted that the Bar Association in Zakarpattia during the studied period, regardless of the content of certain foreign state regimes, where it operated, has remained (with the exception of certain short historical periods) as a free profession, and the conditions of admission to it were based on professional requirements and did not contain legal prohibitions on admission of people from Zakarpattia to the profession.