Ekaterina Khodzhaeva
Research Interests: legal profession, law enforcement and police, criminal justice & court system
Provincial Lawyering: Professional Rights and Limitations in Criminal Defense
This project presents the first representative quantitative and qualitative sociological study of the legal profession in Russian province with the main focus on the inequal professional situation and the violation of professional rights.
The research question is: What are the challenges faced by provincial lawyers in upholding professional standards and representing their clients in criminal cases in Russia? Through the analysis of existing literature, surveys and interviews with provincial lawyers and legal experts, this study aims to shed light on the unique challenges faced by lawyers practicing in smaller communities and rural areas, as well as the broader issues of professional autonomy and the limitations imposed by the criminal justice system in Russia.
Born in 1976 in Kazan, Ekaterina Khodzhaeva graduated from the sociological faculty of Kazan State University in 1998, where she then defended her PhD in on cultural policy of the Tatarstan’s media in 2003. As part of her research agenda at the time, Khodzhaeva also studied ethnic and religious identities in Tatarstan. It was also in Kazan that she began focusing on the empirical legal research in 2007 as part of a research project on police-migration encounters in the city.
In 2009-2010, as a fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, she was a visiting Scholar at the Research Center for East European Studies at the University of Bremen In 2013, Khodzhaeva was a Fulbright Fellow and won a visiting Scholarship at Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University.
In September 2013, Khodzhaeva joined the Institute of Rule of Law at the European University of St. Petersburg as a researcher, and in 2023 she has got a senior researcher position. She participated in the Institute’s research project on the professional routines of the Russian police forces and developed an independent research agenda on the role of defense lawyers in the Russian criminal justice system. From 2018 to 2023, she conducted research on newly launched jury reforms, which relied on extensive field work in small towns and rural areas in Russia. She also participated in Russian Crime Victimization Surveys (2018, 2021, 2024), which independently estimates the dynamic of the criminal situation and police effectiveness in Russia. The central area of her scientific interests includes legal profession, law enforcement and police, criminal justice and court system.