The Standing Committees and the Ministries

The 23rd Congress of the CPSU posed the task of enhancing the role of the supreme Soviets and defined the principal directions to be followed in solving this task. The most important of them are the further improvement in the activity of the standing committees [postoiannye komissii], which contribute to the development of socialist democracy, the improvement in the work of the supreme Soviets and the agencies of state administration, and the activization of deputies. At the first session of the seventh Supreme Soviet [sed'mogo sozyva] of the USSR, the report by N. V. Podgorny, Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, "On Organizing the Standing Committees of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities," emphasized the major role of the standing committees in social and economic development and expressed confidence that their functioning would promote the fulfillment of the tasks facing the country. (1) The seventh supreme Soviets of the USSR and of the union republics carried out a number of practical measures to implement the instructions of the party to increase the role of the standing committees.     

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.     

Scientific-Methodological Conference of USSR Supreme Court

The Scientific Consultative Council under the USSR Supreme Court has held a scientific-methodological conference. It was in preparation for a long time. As early as July 1965, the journal Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost' informed its readers of the forthcoming conference and published an article by S. Radzhabov, "Improve the Administration of the Courts" [Sovershenstvovat' sudebnoe upravlenie], and another by S. Komissarov, "The Supervisory Powers of the USSR Supreme Court Need Improving" [Nadzornye polnomochiia Verkhovnogo Suda Soiuza SSR nuzhdaiutsia v sover-shenstvovanii]. In August of last year a report was published of a round-table conference conducted by the editors and devoted to the effectiveness of criminal punishment. Subsequently, the journals Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost', Sovetskaia iustitsiia, and Radians'ke pravo have been publishing, in each of their issues, articles, surveys, and proposals on improving the functioning of the courts and increasing the effectiveness of criminal punishment.     

Delimitation Of Competence Between USSR Agencies and Republic Agencies in the Field of Economic Guidance

The question of the scientific bases for distribution of powers [polnomochii] between the USSR and its entities [sub'ekty], the union republics, in the field of economic guidance is of political, practical, and theoretical importance.     

Direction of Internal Affairs Organs By Local Soviets

The territorial organs of internal affairs are subordinate to local Soviets of working people's deputies and comprise departments or administrations of the executive committees of territorial, regional, city, and district Soviets. In their direction of these bodies local Soviets exercise essentially the same rights as in directing other departments and administrations of various branches of government under dual subordination. However, the distinctive features of the internal organizational structure of the internal affairs bodies themselves, as well as of their functioning and the specific form taken by their dual subordination, are responsible for the fact that that direction has unique aspects. (1)     

Justice and Public Opinion

One of the key questions of justice has become the subject of a discussion that has developed in Izvestia. It can be said that its kernel is the matter of the independence of the judiciary. It is this question that underlies the article by Korenevskii and Sukhodolets, "A Cause of Errors" [Otchego byvaiut oshibki] (Izvestia, No. 61), against which Galkin wrote in his article "The Court and Public Passions" [Sud i obshchestvennye] (Izvestia, No. 91).     

Socialism and Contemporary International Law

The Great October Socialist Revolution brought about qualitative changes in the principles and norms of international law. It put an end to inequality and one-sided forms in the relations between the land of Soviets and foreign states. The Soviet state put forth a positive program for the development of peaceful relations, leading to the appearance and development of a new content and form in international law. (1)     

Chapter 14: Encephalitis

Encephalitis is infectious inflammation of the brain. The following types may be provisionally distinguished: (a) primary encephalitis with direct infection of the brain, and (b) secondary encephalitis, caused by various general infections.     

The Subject of Soviet Criminology

The question of the subject of Soviet criminology remains in dispute to this day. The authors of the present article, who initially considered criminology a component of criminal law, (1) have now arrived at a different conclusion. Reviews of the textbook Soviet Criminology [Sovetskaia kriminologiia] noted, as one of its shortcomings, a vague solution of the question of the subject of this science. (2) Considering this, as well as the fact that the subject of a science is among the most important questions, we have decided to offer certain of our thoughts on this subject.     

On Improving the Legislation on Territorial and Regional Soviets of Working People's Deputies

The Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the Twenty-fifth Party Congress advanced the proposal of adopting laws to define the jurisdiction of territorial [krai], regional [oblast'], and area [okrug] soviets of working people's deputies. This proposal was adopted unanimously by the delegates to the congress. In the course of the work begun to draft these laws, which will define the content and form of activity at the present stage of the building of communism of such an important link in the system of soviets as the regional and territorial soviets, many questions have arisen demanding profound and comprehensive scientific study. In this connection the editors invite legal scholars and practical workers to share in the pages of the journal the results of their research and generalizations from the experience of the work of the soviets and from application of the prevailing legislation, and to express judgments, proposals, and recommendations on the paths to be followed in improving the legislation on territorial, regional, and area soviets.     

Population Dynamics and the Law

One of the basic functions of human society is that of assuring the continuation of the human race. "According to the materialist view," wrote Engels, "the production and reproduction of life itself is, in the final analysis, the determining factor in history." (1) At various stages in the development of human society, this function has found realization in differing social forms. (2) At present it is implemented almost everywhere through the contemporary monogamous family. The family is the nucleus of society; through it, the state's population policy is carried out. The other functions of the family (educational, economic) are, as a rule, consequences of its primary function. They supplement it and flow from it.     

A Collaboration,Not a Duel

In a number of articles published in LG, advocates take on the appearance, in readers' eyes, of lone fighters for truth, law, and justice in the courts. There is no other party on whom a defendant can depend for defense of his legal rights. The picture that emerges is that of the defense counsel as an "adversary" in the case, conducting a struggle over the defendant with another "adversary," the procurator, the state prosecutor. In such a situation, the latter naturally seeks to incriminate, to bring about punishment of the defendant. And for him this is, after all, easy, for behind him is the entire powerful system of the procuracy with all its organizational and technical resources!     

The Problem of Extraterrestrial Civilizations and "Metalaw"

Note from the editors of Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo: We continue here publication of writers' comments on the problem of protecting authors' rights and legal interests begun in no. 11 of 1982.     

Chapter 7: General Information on the Structure of the Nervous System and on Higher Nervous Activity and Its Disorders in Mental Diseases

The nervous system of vertebrates has undergone a long and complex evolution and in man has reached its highest stage of development. The basic structural element of the nervous system in vertebrates and in man is the nerve cell (Fig. 3). Each nerve cell, or neuron, contains cytoplasm, a nucleus, and processes. One fine process, especially long, is called an axon. Nerve impulses pass along axons from the body of a cell to other cells or to innervated organs. Other, shorter processes branch out treelike a short distance from the cell and are called dendrites. Axons of some cells come in contact with dendrites and bodies of other cells to form neuron chains along which nerve impulses are conducted.     

The 1970s : Reply to a Discussion

We are all aware of the vast practical and scientific significance of the problem of studying and preventing crime and of researching its causes and the conditions giving rising to it. That is why one of the principal provisions of Soviet criminal procedure is the demand that the reasons and conditions making possible the commission of the crime be determined in each criminal case, and that measures be taken to eliminate them. But if the most characteristic, the most typical features in the development of criminality are to be discovered, and if its essential causes and conditions are to be determined (and this is a most important task of criminology), we cannot rely upon the study of individual cases and persons. Because these typical, essential characteristics in the realm of criminality manifest themselves in the form of statistical regularities, criminology must therefore make use of the statistical method on the very largest scale, i.e., it must base its conclusions upon mass-scale observations. "We must remember the rule," wrote Lenin, "that in social science... we deal with mass-scale phenomena and not individual cases." (1) Therefore, criminology, like the other social sciences, is required "to make broader and fuller use of the richest statistical material. For statistics, like concrete investigations, are the air without which science suffocates and is distorted into dead scholasticism." (2)     

Counsel for the Defense Has the Floor

The discussion on "The Defense Counsel: Rights and Problems," launched by LG this January, is approaching its conclusion. Today lawyers and an investigator offer their views.     

Informing the Population About the Activity of State Agencies

Under the conditions of developed socialism, the general problem of informing the population, and that of its knowledge about matters of state and law in particular, becomes increasingly more pertinent. "The development of socialist democracy," said L. I. Brezhnev at a meeting with voters of the Bauman Electoral District in Moscow on June 10, 1966, "demands the solution of many problems that the Party has placed on the order of business." One of these tasks is "providing fuller information to the people about everything happening within the country and on the world scene, and increasing publicity [glasnost'] about the work of the agencies of Soviet government." The Communist Party associates improvement of socialist democracy particularly with the level of society's information "about the policies of the Party and state." (1) Therefore, the Soviet government pays much attention to the solution of questions associated with informing the citizenry about the work of governmental agencies and also about their regulation by law. Thus, for example, in the RSFSR law "On the District Soviet of Working People's Deputies of the RSFSR" (June 29, 1971), we read about the responsibility of the executive committee to inform the population about questions placed on the order of business of the soviet (Article 33), to bring decisions of the district soviet to the knowledge of the citizens (Article 38), and to report on its work at meetings of the working population and at citizens' places of employment (Article 55). Article 93 reads: "The district soviet of working people's deputies is responsible for informing the population about its functioning. …" Presidiums of the supreme Soviets of union and autonomous republics monitor observation of provisions of the law, assuring that the population will be widely informed on the work of state agencies. (2) In this connection, examination of the question of the content and forms whereby the population of the USSR becomes informed about the activity of state agencies is of interest.     

Membership in the Party: Elevating the Designation of Communist

Lenin's challenge is a permanent legacy to our Party: "Our task is to safeguard the firmness, the tempering, the purity of our Party. We must strive to elevate the designation and meaning of Party membership higher, and higher, and higher …" (Complete Works, vol. 7, pp. 290-91).     

The Stigma Enigma: Doublespeak,Double Standards,Double Dipping and the Double-Sided Nature of Stigma in Toxic Tort Property Damage Claims

“Ignorance is strength” “2+2=5” Mottos of “Big Brother” excerpted from the novel 1984 by George Orwell     

A New Textbook

Moscow University Press has published a new textbook, Public Law of the Bourgeois Countries and of Countries Liberated from Colonial Dependence. (1) The very title of the textbook is evidence that the team of authors headed by Professor Mishin has abandoned the traditional organization of the course in public law of bourgeois countries by including among the problems studied the systems of public law of countries that upon liberation from colonial dependence took the political forms of bourgeois democracy or of established authoritarian political regimes. This grouping is entirely justified and is explained by the fact that all nonsocialist governmental systems have a number of significant common characteristics, above all the fact that they reinforce and protect the capitalist economic system and capitalist ownership of the implements and means of production.