Private initiative and professional communities as a factor of construction law formation in the Russian Empire

This work is the first in a series of materials devoted to the forms of manifestation of private and public initiative in the construction law of Russia during the empire and the Soviet period. We center on the phenomenon of “private initiative” as a factor in city formation and construction law. The strength of this factor is illustrated by separate plots of the city-planning policy of the Russian Empire and local lore historical material. We actualize the problem of representation forms of private initiative and public inquiries. Factors of the construction law formation, besides objectively existing legislative activity of the state and the rule-making activities of local authorities, were the proposals of the professional community. We analyze the forms of such proposals (appeals) to the authorities in the context of the active formation of civic consciousness of the intellectual professional elite of Russia concerning city-planning activities and city-planning regulation. Private initiative is understood as a psychological, normative-generating base of social relations, which are the basis for the current complex of city-planning activity regulators. We draw conclusion about the representation of private public inquiries for a comfortable urban living environment in the form of proposals by the professional community to the state, which were formulated imperatively. We draw conclusion about the specific applied nature of legislative proposals in the field of city-planning regulation, which were generated by technical experts and territorial representatives.