ABSTRACT

The contributors to this volume - all specialists on Soviet law and politics - offer a comprehensive examination of the effort to create a "law-based" state in the Gorbachev-era U.S.S.R., thus effecting a fundamental change in the relationship between the state and private groups and individuals. Gianmaria Ajani, Donald Barry, Harold Berman, Frances Foster-Simons, George Ginsburgs, John Hazard, Kathryn Hendley, Eugene Huskey, Dietrich Loeber, Peter Maggs, Hiroshi Oda, Nicolai Petro, Robert Sharlet, Louise Shelley, Will Simons and Peter Solomon, with commentary by Soviet scholars, discuss conceptual, historical, social, cultural, and institutional aspects of Soviet legal development, and supply detailed analysis of recent developments in the areas of civil, criminal, and labour law and the rights of individuals, economic organizations, and political and social groups.

chapter

Introduction

part I|1 pages

Historical and Conceptual Background

chapter 2|21 pages

From Legal Nihilism to Pravovoe Gosudarstvo

Soviet Legal Development, 1917–1990

chapter 3|19 pages

The Rule of Law and the Law-Based State (Rechtsstaat)

With Special Reference to the Soviet Union

part II|1 pages

Pravovoe Gosudarstvo and Soviet Society

chapter 5|16 pages

Regional and National Variations

The Baltic Factor

chapter 7|24 pages

The Soviet Legislature

Gorbachev’s “School of Democracy”

chapter 9|14 pages

The Law-Based State and the CPSU

part III|1 pages

The Impact of Substantive and Procedural Law on Individuals and Organizations

chapter 10|18 pages

Domestic Law and International Law

Importing Superior Standards

chapter 13|22 pages

Reforming Criminal Law under Gorbachev

Crime, Punishment, and the Rights of the Accused

chapter 14|20 pages

The Quest for Judicial Independence

Soviet Courts in a Pravovoe Gosudarstvo

chapter 16|24 pages

Soviet Civil Law and the Emergence of a Pravovoe Gosudarstvo

Do Foreigners Figure in the Grand Scheme?

chapter 17|22 pages

The Ideals of the Pravovoe Gosudarstvo and the Soviet Workplace

A Case Study of Layoffs

part IV|1 pages

Commentary

chapter 18|4 pages

Soviet Legal Developments 1917–1990

A Comment

chapter 21|6 pages

Constitutional Reform in the USSR

chapter 23|4 pages

Rejection of Justice