The Emancipation of Soviet Law

The political, economic, and social reforms resulting from Gorbachev's perestroika have become more radical and comprehensive throughout the years. Increasingly, in their implementation, a central role has been accorded to law. The construction of a viable democratic system, the establishment of an economy in which market factors are decisive, the readmittance of a pluralistic civil society, all of them presuppose, in the eyes of the present Soviet leadership, the creation of a reliable legal foundation. Legislative activity in the Soviet Union during the past few years has therefore been hectic. At the same time, while law was being used as an instrument of change, the character of Soviet law itself was deeply affected. From being the obedient servant of a totalitarian master, law is becoming the core element of a new order in which its supremacy is accepted as the starting point for redesigning all the major sectors of social life. In this volume a number of leader Western experts consider the practical effect of this emancipatory process on the most important branches of Soviet law and investigate its philosophical dimensions.

The Emancipation of Soviet Law: A Foreword. I: General Questions. New Legal Thinking in the Soviet Union. The Romanist Character of Soviet Law. What makes Socialist Law Socialist? -- The Chinese Case. II: Reforming the Economy. The Contract of Independent Work (Podriad) at the State Enterprise. Choice of Law and Joint Ventures in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Lawyers and Perestroika. The Role of the Jurisconsult in the Soviet State Enterprise in the Light of the Economic Reforms. Soviet Foreign Trade Law as seen from the United States. Private Economic Activity in Poland. III: Administrative and Criminal Law Reform. Perestroika and Developments in Soviet Criminal Law. Rebuilding Soviet Criminal Procedure. Legislation on Administrative Procedure in Czechoslovakia and in the Soviet Union. Special Procedures in Soviet Administrative and Criminal Law. Recent Developments in Party Control over the Courts and the Procuracy. Legal Rights of the Handicapped in the USSR. Index.