Socialist law

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Bulletin at the Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1946)
Bulletin at the Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1946). There is only one candidate on the bulletin.

Socialist law or Soviet law are terms used in comparative legal studies for the general type of

Marxist–Leninist ideology. There is controversy as to whether socialist law ever constituted a separate legal system or not.[1] If so, prior to the end of the Cold War
, socialist law would be ranked among the major legal systems of the world.

While civil law systems have traditionally put great pains in defining the notion of

agricultural co-operatives, and having special courts and laws for state enterprises.[2]

Many scholars argue that socialist law was not a separate legal classification.

command economy approach of the communist states meant that most types of property could not be owned, the Soviet Union always had a civil code, courts that interpreted this civil code, and a civil law approach to legal reasoning (thus, both legal process and legal reasoning were largely analogous to the French or German civil code system). Legal systems in all socialist states preserved formal criteria of the Romano-Germanic civil law; for this reason, law theorists in post-socialist states usually consider the socialist law as a particular case of the Romano-Germanic civil law. Cases of development of common law into socialist law are unknown because of incompatibility of basic principles of these two systems (common law presumes influential rule-making role of courts while courts in socialist states play a dependent role).[4]

An article published in 2016 suggests that socialist law, at least from the perspective of public law and constitutional design, is a useful category. In the NYU Journal of International Law and Policy, William Partlett and Eric Ip argue that socialist law helps to understand the "Russo-Leninist transplants" that currently operate in China's socialist law system. This helps to understand the "distinctive public law institutions and approaches in China that have been ignored by many scholars".[5]

Soviet legal theory

Soviet law displayed many special characteristics that derived from the socialist nature of the Soviet state and reflected Marxist–Leninist ideology. Vladimir Lenin accepted the Marxist conception of the law and the state as instruments of coercion in the hands of the bourgeoisie and postulated the creation of popular, informal tribunals to administer revolutionary justice. One of the main theoreticians of Soviet socialist legality and proletarian law in this early phase was Pēteris Stučka. Other proponents of proletarian law included Dmitry Kursky and Nikolai Krylenko.[6]

Alongside this

utopian trend was one more critical of the concept of "proletarian justice", represented by Evgeny Pashukanis. A dictatorial trend developed that advocated the use of law and legal institutions to suppress all opposition to the regime. This trend reached its zenith under Joseph Stalin with the ascendancy of Andrey Vyshinsky, when the administration of justice was carried out mainly by the security police in special tribunals.[citation needed
]

During the

individual rights in relation to the state and criticizing those who violated procedural law in implementing Soviet justice. This signaled a resurgence of socialist legality as the dominant trend. Socialist legality itself still lacked features associated with Western jurisprudence.[clarification needed
]

Characteristic traits

Socialist law is similar to the civil law but with a greatly increased public law sector and decreased private law sector.[8]

  • extensive social warrants of the state (the rights to a job, free education, free healthcare, retirement at 60 for men and 55 for women, maternity leave, free disability benefits and sick leave compensation, subsidies to multichildren families, ...) in return for a high degree of social mobilization.
  • the judicial process lacks an adversarial character; public prosecution is considered as "provider of justice."
  • partial or total expulsion of the former
    ruling classes
    from the public life at early stages of existence of each socialist state; however, in all socialist states this policy gradually changed into the policy of "one socialist nation without classes"
  • diversity of political views directly discouraged.
  • the ruling Communist party was eventually subject to prosecution through party committees in first place.
  • abolition of private property, thus near total collectivization and nationalization of the means of production;
  • subordination of the judiciary to the Communist Party
  • low respect for intellectual property as knowledge and culture was considered a right for human kind, and not a privilege as in the free market economies.

A specific institution characteristic to Socialist law was the so-called

burlaw court (or, verbally, "court of comrades", Russian товарищеский суд) which decided on minor offences.[9]

See also

General
  • Legal systems of the world
Cuba
  • Cuban legal system
  • Cuban law
Soviet Union

Notes

  1. JSTOR 840224
    .
  2. ^ "Soviet law". Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  3. doi:10.1146/annurev.lawsocsci.3.081806.112849
    .
  4. ^ "Soviet law". Retrieved September 10, 2016.
  5. SSRN 2660098
  6. ISSN 2658-6037
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1442644601
    . HAL 00859338. Retrieved October 30, 2017.
  8. OCLC 650838256
    .
  9. JSTOR 1227986
    .

Further reading
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