Socialist law is the official name of the legal system The three major legal systems of the world today consist of civil law, common law and religious law. However, each country often develops variations on each system or incorporates many other features into the system used in Communist states A communist state is a sovereign state with a form of government characterized by single-party rule or dominant-party rule of a communist party and a professed allegiance to a communist ideology as the guiding principle of the state. It is based on the civil law Civil law is a legal system inspired by Roman law, the primary feature of which is that laws are written into a collection, codified, and not determined by judges. Conceptually, it is the group of legal ideas and systems ultimately derived from the Code of Justinian, but heavily overlaid by Germanic, ecclesiastical, feudal, and local practices, as system, with major modifications and additions from Marxist-Leninist Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideological stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency among the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted as the ideological foundation of the Communist International during Stalin's era ideology. While civil law systems have traditionally put great pains in defining the notion of private property, how it may be acquired, transferred, or lost, socialist law systems provide for most property to be owned by the state A sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. While in abstract terms a sovereign state can exist without being recognised by other sovereign states, unrecognised states will often find it hard to or by agricultural Agriculture is the production of food and goods through farming. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and stratified societies. The study of agriculture is known as co-operatives, and having special courts and laws for state enterprises.

Prior to the end of the Cold War The Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition existing after World War II (1939–1945), primarily between the Soviet Union and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, particularly the United States. Although the primary participants' military forces never, Socialist Law was generally ranked among the major legal systems of the world. However, many contemporary observers no longer consider it to be such, due to similarities with the civil law system and the fact that it is no longer in widespread use following the dismantling of most communist states.

Many scholars argue that socialist law was not a separate legal classification. Although the command economy approach of the communist states meant that property could not be owned, the Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (help·info), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, IPA [sɐˈjʊs sɐˈvʲeʦkʲɪx səʦɪ 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 France (pronounced /ˈfrænts/ frantss or /ˈfrɑːnts/ frahnts; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a state in Western Europe with several of its overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, or German A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state, 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 Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action. A "common law system" is a legal system that gives great precedential weight to common law, on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different 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).

Soviet legal theory

Soviet law displayed many special characteristics that derived from the socialist nature of the Soviet state and reflected Marxist-Leninist ideology Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideological stream that emerged as the mainstream tendency among the Communist parties in the 1920s as it was adopted as the ideological foundation of the Communist International during Stalin's era. Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Russian: Владимир Ильич Ульянов [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr ɪlʲˈjiʨ ʊlʲˈjanəf]), was a Russian revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years (1917–1924), as it 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 in this early phase was Pēteris Stučka Pēteris Stučka, sometimes spelt Pyotr Ivanovich Stuchka (Russian: Пётр Ива́нович Сту́чка, German: Peter Stutschka ; b. July 26 [O.S. July 14] 1865 in Koknese parish, Governorate of Livonia — d. January 25, 1932 in Moscow) was the head of the Bolshevik government in Latvia during the Latvian War of Independence, one of the.

Alongside this utopian Utopia is a name for an ideal community or society, which is taken from Of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia, a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system. The term has been used to describe both intentional trend was one more critical of the concept of "proletarian The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons justice", represented by Evgeny Pashukanis Evgeny Bronislavovich Pashukanis was a Soviet legal scholar, best known for his work The General Theory of Law and Marxism. 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 Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. In the years following Lenin's death in 1924, he rose to become the leader of the Soviet Union, which he ruled as a dictator with the ascendancy of Andrey Vyshinsky Andrey Januaryevich Vyshinskiy (December 10 [O.S. November 28] 1883, Odessa, Imperial Russia –November 22, 1954, New York), was a Russian and Soviet jurist and diplomat. He is mostly known as a state prosecutor of Stalin's show trials. He served as the Soviet Foreign Minister from 1949 to 1953, and spoke some English and excellent French, when the administration of justice was carried out mainly by the security police in special tribunals NKVD troika or Troika, in Soviet Union history, were commissions of three people employed as an additional instrument of extrajudicial punishment introduced to supplement the legal system with a means for quick punishment of anti-Soviet elements. It began as an institution of the Cheka, then later became prominent again in the NKVD, when it was.

During the de-Stalinization De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality and Stalinist political system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin of the Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the era, a new trend developed, based on socialist legality, that stressed the need to protect the procedural and statutory rights of citizens, while still calling for obedience to the state. New legal codes, introduced in 1960 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. It was the first year of the 1960s. The year 1960 is also known as the "Year of Africa", were part of the effort to establish legal norms in administering laws. Although socialist legality remained in force after 1960, the dictatorial and utopian trends continued to influence the legal process. Persecution of political and religious dissenters continued, but at the same time there was a tendency to decriminalize Decriminalization is the abolition of criminal penalties in relation to certain acts, perhaps retroactively, though perhaps regulated permits or fines might still apply . The reverse process is criminalization lesser offenses by handing them over to people's courts and administrative agencies and dealing with them by education rather than by incarceration.

By late 1986 1986 was a common year that started on a Wednesday, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It was designated the International Year of Peace by the United Nations, the Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov (Russian: Михаил Сергеевич Горбачёв [mʲɪxɐˈil sʲɪrˈɡʲeɪvʲɪtɕ ɡərbɐˈtɕof] ; born 2 March 1931) is the former seventh and last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 era was stressing anew the importance of individual rights Group rights are rights held by a group rather than by its members separately, or rights held only by individuals within the specified group; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people regardless of their group membership or lack thereof. Group rights have historically been used both to infringe upon and to facilitate in relation to the state and criticizing those who violated procedural law Procedural law comprises the rule by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil lawsuit, criminal or administrative proceedings. The rules are designed to ensure a fair and consistent application of due process or fundamental justice (in other common law countries) to all cases that come before a court. The substantive law, which in implementing Soviet justice. This signaled a resurgence of socialist legality as the dominant trend. It should be noted, however, that socialist legality itself still lacked features associated with Western jurisprudence. In particular, the ultimate control of the legal system lay with the party The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world. It lost its dominance in the wake of the failed August 1991 coup d'état attempt led by communist hardliners leadership, which was not democratically Democracy is a political form of government where governing power is derived from the people, either by direct referendum or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy). The term comes from the Greek: δημοκρατία - (dēmokratía) "rule of the people", which was coined from δῆμος (dêmos) & elected by, and therefore not responsible to, the public at large.

Characteristic traits

• partial or total expulsion of the former ruling classes The ruling class is a particular sector of the upper class that adheres to quite specific circumstances: it has both the most material wealth and the most widespread influence over all the other classes, and it chooses to actively exercise that power to shape the direction of a locality, a country, and/or the world. Most of the upper class does 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 banned or condemned by legislation
• the ruling Communist party was considered above the law system; in many cases party functionaries were not subject to criminal Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual human societies may each define crime and crimes differently. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches of contract and of other civil law may rank as " prosecution but rather to disciplinary measures taken by party committees;
• private property was considered as remnant of the bourgeois society and, as such, harmful; this resulted in high degree of collectivization and nationalization of property;
• low respect for privacy Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or, extensive control of the party over private life;
• low respect for intellectual property Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which property rights are recognised--and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries, unless state-owned (which directly resulted from the above two principles);
• extensive social warrants of the state (the rights to a job, free education, etc.) in return for a high degree of social mobilization and a low degree of human rights Human rights are "rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Proponents of the concept usually assert that everyone is endowed with certain entitlements merely by reason of being human^{[citation needed]};
• the judicial process lacks adversary The adversarial system of law is the system of law that relies on the contest between each advocate representing his or her party's positions and involves an impartial person or group of people, usually a jury or judge, trying to determine the truth of the case. As opposed to that, the inquisitorial system has a judge (or a group of judges who character; public prosecution is considered as "provider of justice."

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.

Chinese Socialist law

Among the remaining communist governments, some (most notably the People's Republic of China b. ^ Simple characterizations of the political structure since the 1980s are no longer possible) have added extensive modifications to their legal systems. In general, this is a result of their market-oriented A free market is a market without economic intervention and regulation by government except to enforce ownership and contracts. It is the opposite of a controlled market, where the government regulates how the means of production, goods, services and labor are used, priced, or distributed. This is the contemporary use of the term "free market& economic changes. However, some communist influence can still be seen. For example, in Chinese b. ^ Simple characterizations of the political structure since the 1980s are no longer possible real estate Real estate is a legal term that encompasses land along with improvements to the land, such as buildings, fences, wells and other site improvements that are fixed in location—immovable. Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction and include things such as commercial law there is no unified concept of real property Real property and personal property are the main classifications of property in the common law. Real property refers to land and the improvements made by human efforts—buildings, machinery, the acquisition of various property rights, and the like. Real property is also termed realty, real estate, and immovable property; the state owns all land but often not the structures that sit on that land. A rather complex ad hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase which, literally, means "For this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and which cannot be adapted to other purposes system of use rights Use, as a term in real property law of common law countries, amounts to a recognition of the duty of a person, to whom property has been conveyed for certain purposes, to carry out those purposes to land property has developed, and these use rights are the things being officially traded (rather than the property itself). In some cases (for example in the case of urban A city is a relatively large and permanent urban settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law residential property), the system results in something that resembles real property transactions in other legal systems.

In other cases, the Chinese system results in something quite different. For example, it is a common misconception that reforms under Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping listen (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese politician, statesman, theorist, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng became a reformer who led China towards a market economy. While Deng never held office as the head of state, head of government or General Secretary of the Communist Party of China ( resulted in the privatization Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector (businesses that operate for a private profit). In a broader sense, privatization refers to transfer of any government function to the private sector - including governmental functions of agricultural land and a creation of a land tenure Land tenure is the name given, particularly in common law systems, to the legal regime in which land is owned by an individual, who is said to "hold" the land. The sovereign monarch, known as The Crown, held land in its own right. All private owners are either its tenants or sub-tenants. The term "tenure" is used to signify the system similar to those found in Western The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context (e.g., the time period, the region or social situation). Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical countries. In actuality, the village committee owns the land and contracts In law, a contract is an agreement between two or more parties which, if it contains the elements of a valid legal agreement, is enforceable by law or by binding arbitration. That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises with specific legal remedies for breach. These can include Compensatory remedy, whereby the defaulting party is required the right to use this land to individual farmers who may use the land to make money from agriculture. Hence the rights that are normally unified in Western economies are split up between the individual farmer and the village committee.

This has a number of consequences. One of them is that, because the farmer does not have an absolute right to transfer the land, he cannot borrow A loan is a type of debt. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the lender and the borrower against his use rights. On the other hand, there is some insurance against risk in the system, in that the farmer can return his land to the village committee if he wants to stop farming and start some other sort of business. Then, if this business does not work, he can get a new contract with the village committee and return to farming. The fact that the land is redistributable by the village committee also ensures that no one is left landless; this creates a form of social welfare.

There have been a number of proposals to reform this system and they have tended to be in the direction of fully privatizing rural land for the alleged purpose of increasing efficiency. These proposals have usually not received any significant support, largely because of the popularity of the current system among the farmers themselves. There is little risk that the village committee will attempt to impose a bad contract on the farmers, since this would reduce the amount of money the village committee receives. At the same time, the farmer has some flexibility to decide to leave farming for other ventures and to return at a later time.

See also

• Legal systems of the world
• Chinese law
• Soviet law
• Cuban Legal System
• Cuban law

Notes

Further reading

• Stuchka, P.I. (1988). Selected Writings on Soviet Law and Marxism. Robert Sharlet, Peter B. Maggs, and Piers Beirne (eds.). Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-87332-473-0. OCLC 17353762.
• Evenson, Debra (2003). Law and Society in Contemporary Cuba (2nd ed. ed.). The Hague: Kluwer Law International. ISBN 904112165X. OCLC 52976800.

Categories: Soviet law | Socialism | Legal codes | Legal systems

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