Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concentrates on the regimes that are situated between the Russian (and later Soviet) legal culture and the area covered by the German Civil Code. The socialist interpretations of legal history can be mapped within this space and between those polarities. The book traces the tensions between the European legal tradition and socialist legal orders, and the ways in which these frictions were overcome or, alternatively, emphasized. It also analyzes shifting meanings and the use of the fundamental building blocks of European legal science, such as open concepts or traditional legal virtues, in socialist legal historiography.