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Full-Text Articles in Law

Federalism Or Federationism, William E. Butler May 2002

Federalism Or Federationism, William E. Butler

Michigan Law Review

When I took up my appointment in October 1970 as Reader in Comparative Law in the University of London, I was invited to collaborate in teaching the LL.M.' course in Soviet Law offered within the University on an intercollegiate basis. The course had been introduced two years previously, the first of its kind within the realm. Originally it was offered by a team of three, regrettably all now deceased: Edward Johnson, Ivo Lapenna, and Albert K. R Kiralfy. I had come to England to replace the late Edward Johnson, whose untimely death had left vacant the Readership in Soviet Law, …


Language Of Lullabies: The Russification And De-Russification Of The Baltic States, Sonia Bychkov Green Jan 1997

Language Of Lullabies: The Russification And De-Russification Of The Baltic States, Sonia Bychkov Green

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article argues that the laws for promotion of the national languages are a legitimate means for the Baltic states to establish their cultural independence from Russia and the former Soviet Union.


The Role Of Law In The Soviet System: Looking Back And Moving Forward, Sarah J. Reynolds Jan 1994

The Role Of Law In The Soviet System: Looking Back And Moving Forward, Sarah J. Reynolds

Michigan Journal of International Law

Review of Russian Law: The End of the Soviet System and the Role of Law by F.J.M. Feldbrugge


Models For A Gorbachev Constitution Of The U.S.S.R., John N. Hazard Jan 1989

Models For A Gorbachev Constitution Of The U.S.S.R., John N. Hazard

Michigan Journal of International Law

Western Sovietologists were startled when Secretary General Mikhail S. Gorbachev set his craftsmen to work in the Summer of 1988 to prepare a revised structure for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ("U.S.S.R."). While some hint of what was to come had been given by publications prior to the 19th Communist Party Conference, and while some of these appeared in the theses to be debated at the Conference, Westerners expected little more than a call from the tribune for change in attitudes. Basic State structures established by Leonid Brezhnev in his 1977 Constitution had not previously been questioned. Critics levelled …


Lawyers In Soviet Work Life, Michigan Law Review Feb 1985

Lawyers In Soviet Work Life, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Lawyers in Soviet Work Life by Louise I. Shelley


Socialism And Federation, John N. Hazard May 1984

Socialism And Federation, John N. Hazard

Michigan Law Review

Federal structures are often established by national founders to manage intractable problems created over generations, if not centuries, by the migration of peoples. Military and economic pressures may stimulate union to assure survival, but ethnic, racial or religious tensions sometimes hamper draftsmen who sense the need for unity. Federation has often been the modem solution to the conflict between the need for unity and the desire for autonomy felt by groups fearing the loss of identity.


Final Judgment: My Life As A Soviet Defense Attorney, Michigan Law Review Feb 1984

Final Judgment: My Life As A Soviet Defense Attorney, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Final Judgment: My Life as a Soviet Defense Attorney by Dina Kaminskaya


Beyond Freedom And Dignity: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn And The American Gulag, Ira P. Robbins Mar 1980

Beyond Freedom And Dignity: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn And The American Gulag, Ira P. Robbins

Michigan Law Review

A review of The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation. Volume III by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn


Review Of Contemporary Soviet Law: Essays In Honor Of John N. Hazard, Whitmore Gray Jan 1977

Review Of Contemporary Soviet Law: Essays In Honor Of John N. Hazard, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

This excellent collection of essays on Soviet Law was assembled to honor Professor John N. Hazard of Columbia University on the occasion of his sixty-fifth year, as well as the fortieth anniversary of his embarking on his study of the Soviet legal system. As an introduction to the contemporary essays, the editors happily chose to publish for the first time some of the letters Professor Hazard wrote to his sponsor in New York during his three years as a law student in Moscow, 1934-37. These excerpts are the jewel of the volume, and should certainly be read by anyone trying …


Review Of Encyclopedia Of Soviet Law, Whitmore Gray Jan 1975

Review Of Encyclopedia Of Soviet Law, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

The publication of this work is an occasion for real celebration. At last there is a standard reference book to which both initiated scholar and interested neophyte can turn for an excellent introduction to almost any point of Soviet law. Professor F.J.M. Feldbrugge of the University of Leiden and his collaborators have produced a volume which will surely serve as the point of initial reference and departure for all subsequent scholarship on Soviet law.


Review Of The Judge In A Communist State: A View From Within, Whitmore Gray Jan 1973

Review Of The Judge In A Communist State: A View From Within, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

This is a rare book. It is full of real people and real life episodes. The author's almost incredible memory for the details of scores of cases and other legal incidents in Czechoslovakia in the 1950's makes this a remarkable contribution to the comparative-law literature. Those who are looking for theoretical controversy will not find it here, for this book is simply a generous slice of life in a communist country, as seen through the eyes of a remarkably perceptive, legally trained viewer. As the author says, it is "neither an indictment nor a glorification" (p. xi). The author is …


Legal Education In The Soviet Union And Eastern Europe, Whitmore Gray Jan 1971

Legal Education In The Soviet Union And Eastern Europe, Whitmore Gray

Articles

The following notes are based on interviews with law professors, law students and lawyers during a brief trip in 1970 to Moscow, Budapest and Prague. On previous visits in 1959 and 1965 the writer had visited law schools in Kiev, Baku, Tbilisi, Alma Ata, Leningrad, Prague and Warsaw, and had sat in on lectures, recitation sections, and examinations.1 In looking this time for changes, the writer was particularly interested in whether there was some reflection there of the general student malaise which the United States has been experiencing, manifested in American law schools in student pressure for "relevant" courses and …


Scholarship On Soviet Family Law In Perspective, Whitmore Gray Jan 1970

Scholarship On Soviet Family Law In Perspective, Whitmore Gray

Articles

The radical changes in the norms of Soviet family law over the past fifty years have reflected the convulsions of Soviet society as well as the revisions of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism. This paper is a commentary on the writing in this field by Americans in particular, and by other non-Soviets in general. In view of the volume of writing in this field, it has been necessary to limit discussion in the text to a few representative articles illustrating a few of the subject matters treated and various typical approaches employed. The topic is a particularly timely one, for new, comprehensive Principles of …


Civil Code Of The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic: An English Translation, Whitmore Gray, Raymond Stults Jan 1965

Civil Code Of The Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic: An English Translation, Whitmore Gray, Raymond Stults

Books

This book is an English translation of the Soviet Civil Code as published in Sovetskaia Iustitsiia in 1964. This book also includes the Russian original.


Review Of The Soviet Legal System And How Russia Is Ruled, Whitmore Gray Jan 1964

Review Of The Soviet Legal System And How Russia Is Ruled, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

Is there a legal system in the Soviet Union, and if so, what is its role in post-Stalin Soviet society? The Soviet Legal System for the first time makes it possible for a lawyer or law teacher to plunge directly into a very rich collection of translations of case decisions, statutes and doctrinal commentary. Even without a background in Soviet studies, the authors' valuable commentary and the reader's own legal training should make it possible for him to evaluate the material presented. With the help of the new edition of Fainsod's How Russia Is Ruled he can see the development …


Soviet Tort Law: The New Principles Annotated, Whitmore Gray Jan 1964

Soviet Tort Law: The New Principles Annotated, Whitmore Gray

Articles

In 1961, the federal legislature, the USSR Supreme Soviet, finally adopted a skeleton code of fundamental principles of civil law.10 This recodification, which incorporates 40 years of case law and doctrinal development as well as some major innovations, will be the basis for individual civil codes to be adopted in each of the 15 union republics. While there may be some slight modifications, and certainly some variety in the degree of additional detail included in the individual codes by each republic,11 these Principles present already a fairly comprehensive picture of the shape of the future law. They are about as …


Grzybowski: Soviet Legal Institutions: Doctrines And Social Functions, Isaac Shapiro May 1963

Grzybowski: Soviet Legal Institutions: Doctrines And Social Functions, Isaac Shapiro

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Soviet Legal Institutions: Doctrines and Social Functions. By Kazimierz Grzybowski.


Chinese Communist Law: Its Background And Development, Luke T. Lee Feb 1962

Chinese Communist Law: Its Background And Development, Luke T. Lee

Michigan Law Review

It is perhaps axiomatic to state that law is more than an instrument for the settlement of disputes and punishment of wrongdoers; it is, more importantly, a reflection of the way of life and the philosophy of the people that live under it. Self-evident though the above may be, it bears repeating here, for there is a much greater need for understanding Chinese law now than ever before. China's growing ideological, political, economic, and military impact on the rest of the world would alone serve as a powerful motivation for the study of its law. Certainly, we could not even …


Soviet Legal Institutions: Doctrines And Social Functions, Kazimierz Grzybowski Jan 1962

Soviet Legal Institutions: Doctrines And Social Functions, Kazimierz Grzybowski

Michigan Legal Studies Series

This book represents the highlight of a career of scholarship by its author and a most significant contribution to the literature, which will bring to those who seek it an understanding of the role law plays in Soviet Russia. More important, it will bring that understanding in a comparative context which sharpens the impact and compels a careful analysis of the social function legal institutions perform in both systems. Though Soviet jurists may deny the validity of comparative methodology as applied to the Soviet legal order, the analysis which is here presented proves not only that comparisons are possible but …


Review Of The Soviet System Of Government, Settling Disputes In Soviet Society, Government, Law And Courts In The Soviet Union And Eastern Europe, And The Law Of Inheritance In Eastern Europe And In The People's Republic Of China, Whitmore Gray Jan 1961

Review Of The Soviet System Of Government, Settling Disputes In Soviet Society, Government, Law And Courts In The Soviet Union And Eastern Europe, And The Law Of Inheritance In Eastern Europe And In The People's Republic Of China, Whitmore Gray

Reviews

Each of these four books makes a significant contribution to the rapidly growing body of literature on the communist legal systems. Together they provide an introduction to Soviet law and legal history and a basis for its comparison with the law of other countries within the communist bloc. Before examining the books individually a brief description of their contents may be in order.


Atoms And The Law, E. Blythe Stason, Samuel D. Estep, William J. Pierce Jan 1959

Atoms And The Law, E. Blythe Stason, Samuel D. Estep, William J. Pierce

Books

Early in 1951 a group of interested members of the faculty of The University of Michigan Law School conceived the idea of a research project, the purpose of which would be to investigate the principal unique legal problems being created and likely to be created in the future by peaceful uses of atomic energy. The group planned the preparation and publication of a series of manuscripts which might ultimately emerge as one or more printed volumes dealing with the legal problems affecting this new form of energy. Many phases of the subject were scrutinized, including the rule-making and licensing powers …


Soviet Civil Law: A Review, Roscoe Pound Nov 1951

Soviet Civil Law: A Review, Roscoe Pound

Michigan Law Review

Here is an excellent and much needed book. Although the enthusiastic wishful thinking about things Russian, fashionable not so long ago, has for the most part abated, the rise of a new social and economic order on a great scale must call for careful study by lawyers and law-makers no less than by historians and economists and students of politics. Now that a generation has been at work constructively since the destructive era of militant communism after the revolution, we need accurate and objectively presented and interpreted information as to how the administration of justice goes on under "the dictatorship …


Soviet Law Of Inheritance: I, Vladimir Gsovski Jan 1947

Soviet Law Of Inheritance: I, Vladimir Gsovski

Michigan Law Review

The Soviet law of inheritance has suffered several drastic changes. Not only were the statutory provisions changed, but the attitude of soviet jurists to the very institution of devolution of property on death has presented a constantly changing picture.


Soviet Law Of Inheritance: Ii, Vladimir Gsovski Jan 1947

Soviet Law Of Inheritance: Ii, Vladimir Gsovski

Michigan Law Review

Wills. Neither the Civil Code nor any other statute sets forth any specific requirements for capacity to make a will. Therefore, the soviet jurists deem any person who is generally competent to enter into legal transactions (Civil Code, Section 8) capable of making a will. Thus, minors under the age of eighteen years and persons adjudged unable to manage their affairs because of mental disease or weak-mindedness do not have testamentary capacity. Likewise, a will executed by a testator while "in a state of mind which precluded his understanding the significance of his acts," has no validity (id., Section 3r).


Criminal Law In Russia, Pendelton Howard Jun 1932

Criminal Law In Russia, Pendelton Howard

Michigan Law Review

A Review of SOVIET ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL LAW. By Judah Zelitch.


The Recognition Of Russia, Edwin D. Dickinson Dec 1931

The Recognition Of Russia, Edwin D. Dickinson

Michigan Law Review

Revolution in Russia culminated, on March 15, 1917, in the abdication of the Romanoffs and the establishment of the Provisional Government. In November, 1917, the Provisional Government was overthrown by the Bolsheviki and the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic was proclaimed. Thus in nine turbulent months authority in Russia passed from the autocracy of the Czars, through the ineffective hands of the moderates, to extreme radicals frankly committed to communism and the dictatorship of the proletariat.


Marriage-Validity Of Marriage Terminable At Will Of The Parties Under Soviet Law Dec 1930

Marriage-Validity Of Marriage Terminable At Will Of The Parties Under Soviet Law

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner married the respondent in Moscow, in 1924, the parties being the domiciled in the Soviet Union. By Soviet law a divorce could be secured upon the registration of both parties of their desire to terminate the marriage, or upon the application of one of them to a court which had no discretion but to dissolve the union. The petitioner filed a bill for separation in England, and an issue was directed in the lower court to determine whether the parties had ever been husband and wife. The court held the marriage invalid, but on appeal it was held the …


Recent Recognition Cases, Edwin D. Dickinson Apr 1925

Recent Recognition Cases, Edwin D. Dickinson

Articles

"The prolonged interval during which the United States declined to recognize the government functioning in Mexico, and the still more protracted period during which recognition has been withheld from the de facto government in Russia, have produced some unusually interesting problems with respect to the appropriate judicial attitude toward an unrecognized de facto foreign government."