68 ADMINISTRATIVE AGrMTIES 1802-1812
of jurisprudence. Furthermore he was far too busy with other matters
to devote all his time and energy to jurisprudence and codification.
However, Alexander I was very impatient and wanted the Code to be
completed immediately. Eager to please his imperial master, Speransky
organized the work of the Commission in such a way that it would
bring immediate results, regardless of the quality or real value of these
results, and in disregard of some opinions he had stated in 1802 (see
chapter 5 intra). Speransky knew current laws only from the papers,
reports, and cases that passed through the Senate and the Ministry of
the Interior; and such an acquaintance could hardly have given him
a high opinion of Russian law. Indeed, he referred disparagingly to
the "barbarian laws" of the Empire. 1 So he turned away ~rom Russian
tradition to more enlightened and better models for inspiration. What
model could be more attractive than the recently drafted Code Civil
in France ("Code Napoleon") and - to a lesser degree - the codifica-
tions of Austria and Prussia? In them Speransky found both a clear and
orderly framework and enlightened legal principles which allowed him
to dispense with wearisome preparatory research and gathering of
Russian laws. The Emperor could only welcome this approach, as it
promised to bring rapid results in the form of lofty general principles
which did not commit him to concrete action or a study of cietails. 2
- Speransky applied his high organizational and bureaucratic ability
to devise an order of procedure which would yield the desired result
quickly. This, incidentally, nicely illustrated how he could accomplish
as much as he did. First he prepared the general outline and plan of
the Code, in most respects copying the plan of the French Code Civil.
Then each section of the outline was given to individual members of
the Commission to be worked out in detail by a certain date. The Code
Napoleon was used as framework, especially for the first part of the
Code. The staff had to find Russian laws to which reference could be
made for each paragraph taken from the French model. As one of the
officials, Il'inskii, noted, frequently the relation between the text and
the laws referred to was rather tenuous. 3 The sections of the Code
were discussed by the Council of State once a week, on Monday. Every
Monday morning, therefore, before the session of the Council, the chief
redacteur would bring to Speransky a draft of the section just completed
1 Legislation "barbares et indignes d'etre ctudices" - quoted by A, N. Filippov,
Uchebnik istorii russkogo prava (posobie k lektsiiam), (5th ed., Iur'ev 1914), part I,
p. 578.
2 A. Kizevetter, "Aleksandr I," lstoricheskie siluety, liudi i sobytiia, (Berlin 1931),
p. 132.
3 N. Il'inskii. "Vospominaniia," Russkii Arkhiv, (1879), No. 12, pp. 431-434;
Filippov, Uchebnik istorii russkogo prava, I, p. 580.