ABSTRACT

This book is an unconventional reappraisal of Soviet law: a field that is ripe for re-evaluation, now that it is clear of Cold War cobwebs; and, as this book shows, one that is surprisingly topical and newly compelling. Scott Newton argues here that the Soviet order was a work of law. Drawing on a wide range of sources – including Russian-language Soviet statues and regulations, jurisprudence, legal theory, and English-language ‘legal Kremlinology’ – this book analyses the central significance of law in the design and operation of Soviet economic, political, and social institutions. In arguing that it was an exemplary, rather than aberrant, case of the uses to which law was put in twentieth-century industrialised societies, Law and the Making of the Soviet World: The Red Demiurge provides an insightful account of both the significance of modern law in the Soviet case and the significance of the Soviet case for modern law.

chapter |29 pages

Introduction

Soviet state and law, Soviet states and law

chapter 1|25 pages

Law and the Soviet emergency state I

Genesis

chapter 2|19 pages

Law and the Soviet emergency state II

Development

chapter 3|26 pages

Law and the Soviet civil state I

Death and resurrection

chapter 4|28 pages

Law and the Soviet civil state II

Pashukanis to Vyshinksy

chapter 5|22 pages

Law and the Soviet developmental state I

Sovereign monopoly capitalism

chapter 6|33 pages

Law and the Soviet developmental state II

Industrialist, employer, landlord 1

chapter 7|32 pages

Law and the Soviet social state

Locating the social in the social state

chapter 8|26 pages

Law and the Soviet (multi)cultural state