An Important form of Improvement of the Professional Skills of Justice Personnel

In accordance with the joint decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers of July 30, 1970, "On Measures to Improve the Work of Judicial and Procuracy Organs," and Decree No. 640 of November 12, 1970, of the RSFSR Council of Ministers, permanent republic-wide courses for improving the qualifications of justice personnel in the RSFSR have been organized in that federation. Here members of supreme courts of autonomous republics, members of territorial, regional, city, and national area courts, presiding judges of district (or city) people's courts, people's judges, consultants of departments of justice and of courts, notaries, and defense attorneys will undergo retraining. Branches of the republic-wide courses for bailiffs, office heads, secretaries of courts and hearings, clerks, and inspectors are being established in affiliation with the ministries of justice of autonomous republics and the justice departments of the executive committees of territorial and regional Soviets of working people's deputies.     

Representative Organs of Government and the Development of Government Administration During the Period of the Building of Communism

Active participation of the working people in public affairs is the key to successful solution of the problems of economic and socio-cultural development. This explains the fact that the role of the Soviets as the most all-inclusive, mass organizations of the people will increase in the course of the building of communism. Representative organs are the best and basic form for implementing the people's power. Combining the characteristics of agencies of state power and of public organizations, the Soviets emerge to an ever increasing degree as public organizations whose function it is to bring about participation by literally every citizen in the management of society's affairs.     

Local Soviets in the Ukraine during the Years of the Great Patriotic War

From the very first day of the Great Patriotic War, local Soviets of all the Soviet republics contributed in every possible way to the use of all forces and means for the needs of defense of the Motherland and the defeat of the enemy. The Ukraine was one of the first to experience all the hardships of the fascist invasion: the death of people, the destruction of cities and villages, and the bestial cruelty perpetrated by Hitler's minions on the occupied territory. With the direct participation of the local Soviets of the republic, about 2 million people were mobilized into the ranks of the Red Army in the first months of the war alone, 657 fighting battalions were formed, sections of the People's Army numbering more than a million persons were created, and over 2 million citizens worked to build equipment for defense. The Soviets also used their efforts to organize the evacuation of the population, industrial enterprises, and various material goods from the territory near the front. By the end of 1941, more than 550 enterprises, 427 machine tractor stations, a huge volume of agricultural products, and over 4 million Soviet citizens had been evacuated from the territory of the republic.¹ This tremendous work was done under the leadership of Party organizations, the supreme organs of government, and the central administrative bodies of the republic. The entire country of Soviets gave all-round assistance to the Ukrainian SSR.     

The Party Nucleus of a Soviet

In the decisions of the Central Committee of the Party on the work of local government authorities at various levels, attention has repeatedly been called to the need to make the groups of Party members in the Soviets more active and to assure that they will influence in every way the work of the bodies of representative government. This was also emphasized in the 1971 decree of the CPSU Central Committee, "On Measures to Further Improve the Work of the District and City Soviets of Working People's Deputies."     

Interpellations By Deputies

The deputy's interpellation is one of the forms whereby local Soviets perform their monitoring [kontrol'naia] function. In the Program of the CPSU, "systematic discussion by Soviets of deputies' interpellations" is regarded as one of the means of improving the forms of representative government and socialist democracy.     

A Road Map for Further Reform of the Bodies of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation

A working group formed by the MVD minister Kolokoltsev has prepared proposals for further reform of the bodies of internal affairs, including improvements in professionalism of police, openness of the bodies of internal affairs, police management, accessibility of law-enforcement services, and crime prevention.     

Code of Ethics for Members of Public Councils

The Code of Ethics for Members of Public Councils attached to the bodies of internal affairs defines ethical norms and establishes rules of their conduct.     

Who Should Serve in Nonstaff Departments?

The nonstaff departments of executive committees in our republic have a history that is not very long but quite complex. It began with a "fast take-off," when executive committees of district and city Soviets virtually competed about how to set up more such departments, although their purpose and purview were often given little thought. This take-off was sometimes followed by disillusionment, and this too involved going to extremes. Sometimes the very right of volunteer components of the administrative machinery to exist was virtually denied. But life puts everything in its place. The departments that were really needed took root and became firmly established. And those that had been established just to make a record ceased to exist, as was to be expected.     

位于他国内水外国船舶上犯罪之管辖权

针对位于他国内水的外国船舶上的犯罪之管辖权问题,指出船旗国不能根据领土原则行使管辖权。沿海国对在本国内水的外国船舶上的犯罪拥有排他性的领土管辖权。一般而言,沿海国对于下列犯罪行使管辖权：一是沿海国国民犯罪或使该沿海国国民受到损害的犯罪;二是破坏沿海国安宁和安全的犯罪;三是违反沿海国有关检疫、入出境、海上安全、海关事务、水域污染或禁止贩毒的法律的行为或犯罪;四是其他性质严重犯罪。根据国际习惯法规则或双边领事条约的规定,对于轻微的不影响船舶以外秩序的犯罪,沿海国一般不行使管辖权,由船旗国管辖。     

The Voter Came to have A Talk (What Research Showed)

Further strengthening and deepening of ties with the masses is one of the central tasks of the Soviets at the present stage of their development. In studying the state of affairs in this sphere, a large role can be played, in our view, by studies of contacts between deputies and voters. How close are these contacts? Which groups in the population are more active in this regard and which less? What is the range of questions dealt with when deputies meet voters? To what degree do the opinions of voters influence actions by deputies in a soviet?     

Relations of Territorial and Regional Soviets with Associations not Subordinate to Them

With the establishment and functioning of industrial and protection associations, the question arose of their relationships with local soviets, above all, those at the territorial and regional levels. If one bases oneself on the text of the respective statutes on these new forms of organization of social production, one finds virtually no reference to local soviets. (1) But this does not mean that the appearance of the associations is not reflected in the work of local organs of state authority. Experience shows that both now and under earlier changes in the system of management of the national economy, local soviets do not, and cannot, stand aside from these complicated processes. Being geographic entities of the unitary Soviet authority and executing the function of state direction in the area under their jurisdiction, they enter into various relationships with new economic complexes, their components and agencies.     

The Standing Committees: Techniques of Monitoring

Note from the editors of Sovety deputatov trudiashchikhsia: Continuing the study of the functioning of Soviets, personnel of the USSR Academy of Sciences' Institute of State and Law looked into the operations of local organs of power in the Latvian SSR. Jointly with practical workers in the field, they prepared a number of scholarly recommendations, including proposals to improve the techniques of monitoring [kontrol'] by the standing committees of district and city Soviets.     

政府业务委托外包的行政法认识

在民营化思潮及服务型政府建设的双重影响下,政府业务委托民间办理渐成我国公共行政改革的重要方向,本文从行政法视角对委托外包的政府业务进行了梳理,认为我国外包的政府业务可以划分为政府行政性业务、政府事业性业务和政府经营性业务,三类不同的政府业务委外具有各自不同的法律属性,应当分别规范:政府行政性业务委外在性质上属于行政委托,由行政委托制度规范,政府事业性业务委外可纳入政府采购的范围,由政府采购法等法律调整,而政府经营性业务委外为政府特许经营,应适用行政许可法及规范政府特许经营方面的特别法。     

Without Days Off It Is More Expensive

The new MVD order declares that MVD employees are to receive compensation for working overtime and defines the rules for calculating this compensation. The measure is said to boost morale and reduce corruption in the bodies of internal affairs.     

The Local Soviets of Working People's Deputies at the Present Stage in the Building of Communism

The local Soviets have been and remain the most numerous link of the soviet system of representation. Being engaged, day in and day out, with various problems in the development of the economy and culture, they concern themselves with improving the wellbeing of the people under the conditions existing in each populated place. The population often judges the success and shortcomings of the machinery of government in general in terms of the triumphs and failings of the local Soviets. Therefore, in dealing with the problem of reinforcing and developing the Soviets as the organization embracing the entire people and embodying its unity, the 22nd Party Congress and the Program adopted by it directed attention to the need to improve the organization and functioning of all levels of the soviet system of representation.     

Elections and the Soviets

Elections for the local Soviets now functioning were held in March 1961. The number of Soviets elected in the USSR as a whole was 49,858, of which 7 were for territories, 107 for regions, 9 for autonomous regions, 10 for national areas, 3,401 for districts, 1,678 for towns, 343 for districts in cities, 3,061 for settlements, and 41,242 for villages.     

Soviet Law and Government

Broad preparations are now under way for the forthcoming elections to the supreme Soviets of the union and autonomous republics and the local Soviets of working people's deputies. As we know, elections will take place on March 3 in the RSFSR, the Ukrainian, Belorussian, Uzbek, Kazakh, Moldavian, Latvian, Tajik and Turkmenian union republics, and on March 17 in the Georgian, Azerbaijan, Lithuanian, Kirgiz, Armenian and Estonian union republics.     

The Reconstitution of Law in Local Settings: Agency Discretion, Ambiguity, and a Surplus of Law in the Policing of Hate Crime

An important yet poorly understood function of law enforcement organizations is the role they play in distilling and transmitting the meaning of legal rules to frontline law enforcement officers and their local communities. In this study, we examine how police and sheriff's agencies in California collectively make sense of state hate crime laws. To do so, we gathered formal policy documents called “hate crime general orders” from all 397 police and sheriff's departments in the state and conducted interviews with law enforcement officials to determine the aggregate patterns of local agencies' responses to higher law. We also construct a “genealogy of law” to locate the sources of the definitions of hate crime used in agency policies. Despite a common set of state criminal laws, we find significant variation in how hate crime is defined in these documents, which we attribute to the discretion local law enforcement agencies possess, the ambiguity of law, and the surplus of legal definitions of hate crime available in the larger environment to which law enforcement must respond. Some law enforcement agencies take their cue from other agencies, some follow statewide guidelines, and others are oriented toward gaining legitimacy from national professional bodies or groups within their own community. The social mechanisms that produce the observed clustering patterns in terms of approach to hate crime law are mimetic (copying another department), normative (driven by professional standards about training and community social movement pressure), and actuarial (affected by the demands of the crime data collection system). Together these findings paint a picture of policing organizations as mediators between law‐on‐the‐books and law‐in‐action that are embedded in interorganizational networks with other departments, state and federal agencies, professional bodies, national social movement organizations, and local community groups. The implications of an interorganizational field perspective on law enforcement and implementation are discussed in relation to existing sociolegal research on policing, regulation, and recent neo‐institutional scholarship on law.     

Order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation,No. 782 of August 13, 2012, Moscow, "On Adoption of Regulations for the Examination of a Work Dispute in the Bodies of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation"

Order No. 782 defines the procedure for handling work-related disputes in the bodies of internal affairs of the Russian Federation.     

Mandating – a likely scrutiny instrument for regional parliaments in EU affairs?

ABSTRACT

Scrutinising governments lies at the heart of parliamentary activities in EU affairs. This applies to national as well as to regional parliaments, most of which possess a toolbox of scrutiny instruments, including the power to mandate, allowing for the strongest form of scrutiny vis-à-vis governments. The article investigates the existence of mandating tools in the 70 regional parliaments equipped with legislative competences in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, whose role in EU affairs has been strengthened by stipulations in the Lisbon Treaty. It is argued that mandating tools are, first, not widely used; second, they are more commonly applied in cases where national parliaments act as ‘policy shapers’ – enabling policy transfer – and if meso-level factors involving territorial politics create further incentives. In sum, the regional parliaments in six member states are still trying to find a place in the maturing EU multi-level parliamentary system.