We Continue the Discussion "the Neighbor who Shares your Apartment"

Note by editors of Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost': In no. 1 of our journal for this year we published an article by Professor A. Ushakov, "The Neighbor Who Shares Your Apartment," dealing with the imperfections of the prevailing legislation governing exchange of dwelling space. The editors circulated this article to people engaged in application of this legislation in practice and to scholars dealing with this problem and sought their opinions.     

The Neighbor who Shares your Apartment: A Discussion

Note by editors of Sotsialisticheskaia zakonnost': Professor A. Ushakov's article poses sharply the inadequacy of the present legislation on exchange of dwelling space. Often an exchange of dwelling space worsens the housing conditions of the neighbors sharing a communal apartment and produces overcrowding. And this is sometimes justified by citing the law and the instructions issued by ministries of municipal services of the union republics. To engage in such a practice means to infringe on citizens' rights to housing.     

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.     

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.     

The Right of Citizens to Appeal Acts by Officials to Courts

The increased role of the courts and enlarged judicial protection of citizens' rights enunciated in the USSR Constitution constitute a further development of Soviet socialist democracy. As we know, the notion of appealing to courts the acts of administrators was propounded by the founders of Marxism-Leninism themselves. (1) In the USSR, the foundations of the institution of judicial supervision of the functioning of the executive were established in the earliest years of Soviet power and were developed in the decree of the Central Executive Committee (TsIK) and Council of People's Commissars of April 11, 1937 - establishing judicial supervision over the activities of financial bodies in recovering from citizens arrears of federal and local taxes and levies, compulsory salary insurance, and local-option taxation - and in the Statute on Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR affirmed by decree of the USSR TsIK of July 9, 1937, granting citizens the right to appeal to courts decisions of executive committees of soviets on refusal to make corrections in lists of voters. (2) This institution was subsequently developed in the Principles of Civil Procedure of the USSR and Union Republics and the corresponding codes of the union republics establishing procedural rules for trial by courts of cases arising out of relationships at administrative law.     

Edict of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

In consequence of the regular commission by A. D. Sakharov of acts casting discredit upon him as a decorated individual, and in the light of numerous proposals from the Soviet public, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, on the basis of Article 40 of the "General Statute on Orders, Medals, and Titles of Honor of the USSR," decrees     

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.     

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).     

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 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.     

About Each of Us and all of Us Together

Demographers are celebrating: the "Statistika" Press has published the collection Population of the USSR. 1973 [Naselenie SSSR. 1973]. Now a great deal of information that is important not only to demographers, and that was previously published in part in Vestnik statistiki, general statistical handbooks, and the seven-volume Results of the USSR Census of 1970 [Itogi Vsesoiuznoi perepisi 1970 goda], has appeared within a single set of covers. This is the first such collection since the war.     

On Promulgation of the Statute on Preliminary Confinement Under Guard

The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics orders:

Article 1. Promulgation of the Statute on Preliminary Confinement Under Guard and that it go into effect as of November 1, 1969.     

Law of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic on the Adoption of the RSFSR Code on Marriage and the Family

The Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic decrees:

Article 1. The RSFSR Code on Marriage and the Family is hereby adopted and shall be put into effect on November 1, 1969.     

The Court Settles the Case!

The discussion of problems of legal defense, begun this year in the pages of LG, has produced a lively exchange of opinions and has touched on important questions of our criminal proceedings.     

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 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)     

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.     

The Russian Diaspora in the Baltic Countries

The Constitution of the USSR is the basis for the further improvement and development of all branches of law. One of the most important lines of development of the political system of Soviet society is the strengthening of the legal foundation for the affairs of government and society (Article 9, Constitution of the USSR). This provision expresses the need for further elevating the role of law and strengthening legality in the developed socialist society. (1)     

Toward a Methodology for the Science of Administration

1. The need for a "systems approach" to study of the machinery of state administration. It is no longer news to anyone that study and discovery of optimal variants for the organization and functioning of the system of agencies of state administration in the USSR are a pressing, paramount task of the science of administration.