The New Laws on the Judicial System,the Criminal Code,and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation

New laws — the Law on the Judicial System of the RSFSR, the Criminal Code, and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR — were passed on October 27, 1960, at the Third Session of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet (Fifth Convocation). These laws are in accord with the Principles of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics, the Principles of Legislation on the Judicial System of the USSR, the Union and Autonomous Republics, and the Principles of Criminal Procedure of the USSR and the Union Republics. The enactment of these laws by the Russian Federation constitutes an important landmark in the development of Soviet legislation.     

An Important Stage in the Development of Soviet Civil Law

In December of 1961 the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in its Seventh Session, approved the Principles of Civil Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics. New civil codes had to be enacted in the union republics in accordance with the Principles. The latter will also serve as the basis for developing and bringing up to date civil legislation within the jurisdiction of the USSR.     

The Subject and System of Water Use Legislation

The Principles of Water Use Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics — ratified by the Second Session, Eighth Convocation of the USSR Supreme Soviet — is a document of great significance to the government and the economy. Its adoption marks a new step on the road to further improving Soviet legislation, strengthening legality and the legal order in the use and conservation of water, that is, in an area of relations that broadly affects virtually all areas of the national economy, the development of cities, and improvement in the people's living conditions. In keeping with the Principles, in the near future, work will commence on the regularization of all-union water use legislation concerning the legal regulation of these relations, and water use codes will also be promulgated by union republics.     

The Principles of Civil Procedure of the USSR and the Union Republics

The Seventh Session of the USSR Supreme Soviet (Fourth Convocation), held in December, 1961, adopted the Principles of Civil Procedure of the USSR and the Union Republics. This will indubitably play a major role in the further reinforcement of legality under socialism in the area of relationships under civil law, and will assure the realization of justice in civil cases.     

Ways of Filling Gaps in Soviet Legislation on Questions Of International Civil Procedure

Soviet civil law and civil procedure underwent a period of renovation in 1961-1965. In December of 1961 we adopted the Principles of Civil Legislation and the Principles of Civil Procedure of the USSR and the Union Republics, which served as the basis for the new codes of civil law and civil procedure in the union republics. These Principles also contain a number of norms of international private law (including norms of international civil procedure) which have been embodied without change in the new codes of civil law and civil procedure.     

The New Codification of Civil Law and Protection of the Honor and Dignity of the Citizen

With the issuance of the Principles of Civil Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics, the first, but very important, stage in the new codification of Soviet civil legislation to correspond with the needs of the period of the comprehensive building of communism has been realized. What must now follow is the adoption of civil codes by the union republics, in which the general, fundamental and primary propositions of the Principles will be appropriately concretized and detailed, developed and augmented.     

Parental Rights

In December 1961 the committees on legislation of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities decided to begin drafting the Principles of Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics on Marriage and the Family. Therefore, an exchange of opinions on the content of this legislation, as well as on the future codes of the union republics on marriage and the family, must doubtless be regarded as useful. In this article we should like to deal with only one question—that of parental rights, the right of parents to raise their children themselves. The Party regards it as a most important task to assure the upbringing, from earliest childhood, of a physically-strong young generation, harmoniously developed physically and mentally, a generation prepared for active participation in the building of a communist society.     

The Law on the Status of Deputies to the Soviets - In Action

The Law on the Status of Deputies to Soviets of Working People's Deputies in the USSR, adopted by the Supreme Soviet, has been in effect now for over a year and a half. Taking into consideration the special importance of exact and undeviating implementation of that law, the Committees on Legislative Proposals and the Mandate Committees of the two houses of the USSR Supreme Soviet have made a careful study of experience in carrying out this law and discussed this question in March 1974 at a joint meeting. A report to this meeting was presented by I. K. Lutak, deputy to the USSR Supreme Soviet and leader of a group of member-deputies of these committees who had prepared this question for consideration. G. I. Usmanov, chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and deputy to the USSR Supreme Soviet, presented a report on experience in applying the Law on the Status of Deputies, as did N. A. Evsigneev, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Voronezh Regional Soviet of Working People's Deputies. Animated discussion arose at the meeting. Participating in it were deputies R. Kh. Abdullaeva, L. T. Torkkeli, A. N. Balandin, F. S. Kuralenok, B. P. Beshchev (USSR minister of transportation), and also S. I. Gusev, deputy procuratorgeneral of the USSR. I. V. Kapitonov, chairman of the Committee on Legislative Proposals of the Council of the Union and a secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, also spoke at the meeting.     

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.     

Editor's Note

All of the Soviet codifications referred to by the authors of Forensic Psychiatry have been translated into English, as follows:

Criminal Law

Fundamentals of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics, and Fundamentals of Criminal Procedure of the USSR and Union Republics: F. J. Feldbrugge, in Law in Eastern Europe, No. 3, under "The Federal Criminal Law of the Soviet Urion" (Z. Szirmai, ed.), A. W. Sythoff, Leyden, 1959; George H. Hanna, in Fundamentals of Soviet Criminal Legislation, the Judicial System, and Criminal Court Procedure, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1960; in Current Digest of the Soviet Press, March 4, 1959.     

Payment To Faculties Of Higher Educational Institutions

Faculties of higher educational institutions are typically paid on the basis of time worked, total earnings being governed by the post held in the table of organization, monthly salary, and time worked. A workday shorter than standard, six hours, is provided for them (Art. 22 of the Principles of Labor Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics; see the compendium The Higher School [Vysshaia shkola], Vol. I, 1965, p. 359). A system of payment through salary by table of organization has been established for the country's higher educational institutions. It is a variety of time wages in the form of payment by the month. Higher educational institutions also use hourly payment to persons invited to teach.     

The Law on Citizenship of the USSR

The new Law on USSR Citizenship, adopted by the USSR Supreme Soviet, December 1, 1978, is a notable contribution to carrying out the program of legislative activity deriving from the USSR Constitution of 1977. The issuance of such a law is envisaged directly in the Constitution, which reads: "The grounds and procedure for acquiring or forfeiting Soviet citizenship are defined by the Law on Citizenship of the USSR" (Article 33). The new law replaces the 1938 Law on USSR Citizenship. That law, consisting of only eight articles, no longer covers many questions of citizenship arising in practice at the present time. Various normative documents were adopted in addition thereto, including instructions by ministries and agencies regulating certain important relationships that should have been settled in law. In writing the new USSR Citizenship Law, the goal was to embrace all questions of citizenship requiring legislative regulation. The law reproduces the corresponding provisions of the USSR Constitution and gives consideration to provisions of the previously prevailing legislation on citizenship and to present practices in this regard. There are new provisions as well. The drafting of the bill was conducted on a broad democratic basis; participating were deputies to the USSR Supreme Soviet, the relevant ministries and agencies, the presidiums of supreme soviets of union republics, and representatives of the science of jurisprudence.     

Review of N. S. Barabasheva,Legal Status of Higher Educational Institutions of the USSR

This book by N. S. Barabasheva is an integrated study of the legal status of higher educational institutions in the unitary system of public education of the Soviet state, a system that is determined by the USSR Constitution and the Principles of USSR and Union Republic Legislation on Education, the Statute on Higher Educational Institutions, and a number of other acts of positive law. The author emphasizes that the status of a higher educational institution as an institution under law is indissolubly associated with the condition, tasks, and prospects of development of higher education. The author offers an opportunity to identify the set of rights and responsibilities of higher educational institutions and the present state of legal regulation of their organization and activity, and to investigate the real opportunities for improving higher educational institutions. The study under review makes it possible to conduct an "inventory" of the provisions of law bearing on the work of higher educational institutions scattered through many legal sources and still inadequately codified, a fact that is important in terms of the drafting of the Legal Code of the USSR.     

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 New Statute on Foreign Diplomatic and Consular Missions

On May 23, 1966, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet issued a decree that approved and put into effect a new statute on the diplomatic and consular missions of foreign states within the territory of the USSR. The issuance of this act is of major significance for the regulation of many questions arising in connection with the residence and functioning of foreign diplomatic and consular missions and their personnel in the USSR, as well as questions having to do with the work of Soviet diplomatic and consular services abroad, and for the further development and strengthening of relations between the USSR and other states.     

The Law Protects Monuments

On October 29, 1976, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a law, "On the Protection and Utilization of Historical and Cultural Monuments," which will go into effect on March 1, 1977.     

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.     

On Valuta Dealings in USSR Territory

In order to improve the procedure for handling valuta valuables in USSR territory, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet decrees:

1. To establish that operations in USSR territory to purchase valuta valuables from organizations and citizens as well as to sell such to them, is the exclusive right of the State Bank of the USSR. Other organizations may engage in such operations only when commissioned to do so by the State Bank. Valuta valuables comprise:     

Administrative Law

The decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of June 21, 1961, "Further Limitation of the Levying of Administrative Fines," which establishes a number of fundamental propositions on administrative responsibility, came into effect in January 1962. The union republics have adopted appropriate legislation in furtherance of this decree.     

Benefits for Those Working in the Far North

Many readers of our journal have expressed interest in the procedure for application of the decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet of September 26, 1967, increasing the benefits for persons working in the Far North and localities with equivalent status. to meet their requests, we publish below expert information on that subject.