Forms of In-House Mutual Assistance in Advocacy: History and Modernity

In this work, the author emphasizes that interpersonal solidarity presupposes the possibility of overcoming various crisis phenomena using the potential of collectivism inherent in free associations. Based on this, the author concludes that the need for the existence of the legal profession is determined not so much by law, but rather by the very nature of man as a social being. The advocacy as a public institution has two goals: to provide a public function to protect the rights and freedoms of sufferers during the administration of justice by the state and to ensure the existence of the social stratum through the implementation of the principle of corporatism enshrined in the law. The principle of corporatism presupposes organizational unity, corporate solidarity, and mutual assistance. The paper examines the history of the emergence of in-house institutions of advocacy solidarity by the example of the "organization of mutual assistance funds" of the St. Petersburg and Moscow councils of attorneys. The author analyses if the modern Russian legislation possesses organizational forms that can become the basis for the organization of modern institutions of mutual assistance of advocates.