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.     

Legal Position of Foreigners in the USSR Under the New Civil Legislation

Given the constant expansion of the international ties of the Soviet Union, the need has long since arisen to give legal form to a number of points bearing on the legal status and rights in civil law of foreign citizens, enterprises and organizations, the applicability of foreign civil laws, as well as the execution of legal decisions and orders of foreign courts in civil matters.     

A New Stage in the Functioning of the Comrades' Courts

On October 23, 1963, the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet passed a decree "On Additions and Amendments to the Statute on the Comrades' Courts." This decree is of exceptional importance in further elevating the role of these courts in educating the working people for communism.     

Change in Court Procedure in divorce Cases

On December 10, 1965, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet adopted a decree entitled "On Certain Changes in Court Procedure in Hearing Divorce Cases," which states:

"1. to establish that decisions in divorce cases shall be issued by district (or city) people's courts.     

Introduction: Problem‐Solving Courts

Problem‐solving courts have become a significant feature of the U.S. justice system, and their popularity appears to be growing internationally with courts under way or in development in countries such as Australia and Great Britain. Drug courts are the most visible type of problem‐solving court, but other varieties are beginning to take hold. Mental health courts, domestic violence courts, and community‐based courts among others are beginning to handle a considerable portion of the legal workload in many jurisdictions. Criminal law violations as well as neighborhood conflicts and interpersonal disputes are increasingly being referred to problem‐solving courts rather than to traditional criminal or civil courts.     

Certain Aspects of the Legal Consciousness of Students in the Higher Grades

The cultivation of a socialist legal consciousness has been elevated in our country to a goal for the people and state as a whole. In the decisions of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, and the USSR Council of Ministers on intensifying the struggle against crime (July 1966), it was proposed that the prevailing legislation, the rights and duties of citizens, and the role and significance of agencies of the courts, the procuracy, and the militia be explained systematically and purposefully.     

哈尔滨解放区对外侨案件的审理

哈尔滨是中国共产党建立稳定政权的第一个国际化大城市,外侨人口众多,犯罪率高,法律纠纷量大。从1946年—1949年,哈尔滨解放区法院受理外侨刑民事案件分别为447件和813件,占其所受理的刑民事案件总数的8.3%和14.7%。法院在涉侨审判中以民国法律、解放区的革命政策法令、苏联法以及外侨的善良风俗作为审判依据,有效地解决了纠纷,维护了社会秩序。     

Review of Decisions Through Judicial Supervision

Soviet legislation has established numerous guarantees designed to assure that courts will take only such decisions, and that only such decisions will take legal effect, as reflect the truth about the case tried. The necessary preconditions for establishing the truth in a case are already created at the stage of preparing a case for trial, which stage, under Article 33 of the Principles of Civil Procedure of the USSR and Union Republics, Article 141 of the RSFSR Code of Civil Procedure, and the corresponding articles of the codes of civil procedures of other republics, is obligatory in each case.     

If a Deputy is Guilty…

A people's deputy! Great trust and human respect are joined in this concept, so familiar to the Soviet people. A deputy's person is inviolable. This means that criminal proceedings cannot be instituted against him, nor can he be arrested or subjected to administrative punishment imposed by the courts without the consent of the relevant soviet or, while it is not in session, without the consent of its presidium or executive committee.     

The European Court of Human Rights,Amicus Curiae,and Violence against Women

Are international courts and advocacy group legal mobilization shaping human rights politics? This question poses a theoretical and empirical challenge to state dominated understandings of international litigation. This article theorizes the interaction between advocacy groups and the European Court of Human Rights and the role this participation plays in the enforcement and development of human rights. The analyses examine institutional factors shaping broad trends in mobilization complemented by two in depth studies examining a single mode of participation, amicus curiae and a single area of law, violence against women. The data identify the critical role standing rules, court review powers and group expertise play in transnational rights mobilization and development. The findings bring into question dominant understandings of international law and contribute to a more complex understanding of law in a global age where international courts and societal actors are shaping the direction of rights protection.     

Political Interests and Their Realization in the USSR

In the Documents of the Twenty-Fourth Congress of the CPSU it is noted that the Party has constantly conducted and is conducting major and quite diverse work to improve the entire political organization of Soviet society. The principal direction in this activity has been and remains the further development of socialist democracy. "The Party manifests unflagging concern that our socialist democracy undergo constant development, that each individual feel himself a citizen in the fullest meaning of the word, concerned with the affairs of the people as a whole and bearing his share of the responsibility for them." (1)     

The Incidence and Structure of Conflict on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

In 1982, Congress established the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a specialized court, with the objective of reducing judicial conflict and harmonizing circuit law in specific policy areas of special complexity. This article examines the incidence and determinants of judicial conflict on the U.S. courts of appeals, focusing specifically on the Federal Circuit. Using international trade and customs regulation cases decided during the 1982 to 1995 terms, the analysis reviews three possible explanations of judicial conflict: policy-oriented, sociolegal, and organizational. The analysis shows that conflict appears in 8.4 percent of the trade and customs regulation decisions rendered by the Federal Circuit during the period of study. The policy direction of Federal Circuit decisions and the court's hierarchical relationship with lower specialized courts provide the strongest explanation for the emergence of conflict on the court. Organizational factors such as panel composition evinced rather anemic explanatory capacity. The results raise an important functional similarity between the Federal Circuit and the generalist courts of appeals. Contrary to the laments of legal practitioners that conflict on the Federal Circuit is excessive relative to conflict on the generalist circuit courts, this analysis finds little support for that claim. Rather, the level of overt conflict on the court is actually low and corroborates conflict levels that have been reported for other U.S. courts of appeals.     

深化改革背景下对司法行政化的遏制

司法行政化,即以行政的目的、构造、方法、机理及效果取代司法自身的内容,形成以行政方式操作的司法。法院司法运作的全过程均带有行政化色彩,表现为司法目的和价值的行政化、案件审判活动的行政化、上下级法院关系的行政化、司法人事制度和法院结构的行政化以及审判管理的行政化等。在给定的约束条件下,司法行政化可以弥补一线司法能力之不足,可以抗制外部干预。但其过度发展会妨碍依法治国,损害办案质量与效率,危及司法权威和公信力,阻碍法院工作的可持续发展。司法行政化的根源在于基本权力结构及其运行机制;司法功能设定的非司法化和资源配置的有限性,统一的人事管理制度和财政供应制度以及国家机能分化不足,亦为重要原因。遏制司法行政化需强化法院的司法审查功能、审判功能以及终局性纠纷解决功能;需阻隔行政性要素介入审判,建立审判独立的"二元模式";需在法院审判管理、司法行政管理、上下级法院业务管理上"去行政化"。     

Memory for murder. A psychological perspective on dissociative amnesia in legal contexts

There is currently a complex and inconsistent state in the law relating to dissociation and dissociative amnesia (McSherry, 1998). Although dissociative amnesia in defendants is relevant to both competency to stand trial and criminal responsibility in principle, courts have typically assumed a skeptical stance toward such claims in practice. However, there is considerable evidence from both nonoffender and offender populations to support the validity of dissociative amnesia in defendants. Further, there is information available to aid in the evaluation of amnesia, such as the quality of the report itself and characteristics of the person reporting the amnesia (e.g., psychopathy). When consideration is given to the legal response to reports of dissociative amnesia by complainants, the situation becomes even more complex. While some courts have rejected recovered memory evidence, others have convicted defendants of historical offenses based on such evidence. In some cases, judges have argued that jurors should be left to decide on the validity of recovered memories based on their common sense and experience. The uncritical acceptance of the validity of repressed memories in complainants by many courts stands in stark contrast to the response to claims of amnesia from defendants. It seems apparent that the courts need better guidelines around the issue of dissociative amnesia in both populations. We think that the increasing scientific understanding of memory in the past decade (see Schacter, 1999) can meaningfully contribute to the development of such guidelines. Responsible, nonpartisan expert testimony from mental health professionals would be one step in the direction of rectifying the current state of law in regards to dissociation.     

中国海事法院:问题与出路——兼论其他专门法院

当前我国专业法院尤其是海事法院在案件受理、管辖与管理体制方面都存在着诸多的现实问题,这些问题的存在在一定程度上影响着我国法院系统的科学发展和司法体制改革进程.以海事法院为中心,分析存在的问题,对现有对策做出反思,并运用科学发展观的指导思想解决问题之所在,指出海事法院乃至专门法院的出路在于理顺管理体制,将其彻底归人现有地方法院的管理体制之下.     

The Right to a Defense,What it Entails and Where it is Going

As is known, the judicial and legal reform begun in 1988 was conceived on a broad scale. It comprised a set of measures to improve the most important components of the Soviet legal system as a whole, ranging from the legislative mechanism and its further democratization to questions bearing on the organization and activity of the courts and all law-enforcement organs, as well as the training of jurists and the legal education of the entire population, to the extent that this is possible. This approach was called for by the commitment, which had become quite popular, to the establishment of a law-governed state. And it is characteristic, among such ambitious and lofty tasks, that one of the key places was reserved for modernization of the system of justice, including criminal cases. Against this background, special attention has been given to the necessity of a maximum guarantee of the right to defense.     

公民、自然人,抑或其他——论俄罗斯民法文化中"公民(гражданин)"概念的价值取向

前苏联,继而是俄罗斯民法中所采用的"公民"概念,并不是其民法学对政治概念的误用,出于其民族传统中对自然人的民法身份与政治身份的关联性考虑,俄罗斯民法中的"公民"包含了私法上的人以及作为隐含条件的公共领域中的人,这两重含义,期望通过唤起个人在维护自身利益方面的公共责任感,来维护社会总的安全,这体现了其民法的民族性取向与社会化价值,对确立现代民法的发展方向具有重要的参考意义.     

The roots of Russian organized crime: from old-fashioned professionals to the organized criminal groups of today

This study focuses on the development of persons and organizations in the successor states of the Soviet Union, with an emphasis on Russia. It examines the development of criminal professionalism in Russia between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and argues that exiling peasants to Siberia contributed to the development of a criminal underworld and the creation of a professional criminal underclass. In the early to late Soviet periods, vory v zakone, or “thieves-in-law,” evolved together with criminal groups as a means to survive in the GULAG, these criminal groups operating within the Soviet prisons and penal colonies. Inadequacies of the Soviet system of central planning led to the criminalization of the Soviet economy and the emergence of the thieves-in-law as critical players. Activities such as racketeering, robbery, and other crimes were dangerous but predominantly secondary. The roots of the Russian mafia lie in the innermost depths of the Russian shadow economy. Some of the key aspects of the post-Soviet privatization process are analyzed together with the interaction between various levels of the Russian government and organized crime groups. It is argued that the state was not corrupted by organized crime groups, but rather the organized crime groups became the state. In the new Russia, organized crime groups and corrupt government executives work together to generatea new criminal state.     

An Attempt at a Concrete Sociological Study of the Elements of a Crime

Concrete sociological research has made progress in a number of fields of the social sciences. The first steps in this direction have also been taken by Soviet criminal law, which has developed studies of crime and its causes and measures to prevent it. Thanks to this, the necessary conditions have been created for the renewal and progress of Soviet criminology.