Reforming the Russian Legal System

by Gordon B. Smith

Overview

Reforming the Russian Legal System is a comprehensive analysis of the forces that are shaping legal reform in the former USSR. Looking beneath the flow of day-to-day developments, the book examines how traditional indigenous Russian legal values, and the 74-year experience with communism and "socialist legality" are being combined with Western concepts of justice and due process to forge a new legal consciousness in Russia today. This book is addressed to students, lawyers, and business people interested in the former USSR, as well as scholars of Russian politics and law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521450522
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/12/1996
Series:	Cambridge Russian Paperbacks , #11
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. Pre-revolutionary Russian law; 2. The Bolshevik experience; 3. The history of legal reform; 4. Forging a new constitution; 5. Citizens and the state: the debate over the Procuracy; 6. In search of a just system: the courts and judicial reform; 7. Law and the transition to a market economy; 8. Legal reform in the republics; 9. Legal reform and the transition to democracy in Russia; Appendix; Notes; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This work should be essential reading for anyone trying to deal with Russia's legal system." Peter B. Maggs, Law & History Review

"Readers seeking an overview of the Russian leagal system will find much of interest in this book. Gordon B. Smith weaves together various literatures to create a succinct and compelling description of law and leagal culture prior to the October Revolution and during the Soviet period." Kathryn Hendley, Historian

From the Publisher