Reviews

Ference Feher, Agnes Heller and Gyorgy Markus, Dictatorship Over Needs, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983, xiii+312 pp. £22.50.

Pierre Kende and Zdenek Strmiska, (Eds.) Egalités et inégalités en Europe de l’ Est, Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris, 1984.

Lewis H. Siegelbaum, The Politics of Industrial Mobilisation in Russia, 1914–17: A Study of the War‐Industries Committees, London, Macmillan (in association with St. Antony's College, Oxford), 1983, xix + 312 pp. £25.00

William J. Conyngham, The Modernization of Soviet Industrial Management, Cambridge University Press, 1982, pp. 332 + ix. £19–50.

Caroline Humphrey, Karl Marx Collective: Economy, society and religion in a Siberian collective farm. Cambridge, Melbourne, Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1983. xviii + 522 pp. £30–00 (£10–95 paperback).

Victor Zaslavsky and Robert J. Brym, Soviet Jewish Emigration and Soviet Nationality Policy, London, Macmillan, 1984, vii + 185 pp. £20.00.

James E. Mace, Communism and the Dilemmas of National Liberation: National Communism in Soviet Ukraine 1918–1933, Harvard University Press for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S., Cambridge, Mass. 1983. xiv + 334 pp. $21.50.

Kalman Rupp, Entrepreneurs in Red, State University of New York Press, Albany, N.Y., 1983. 260 + xvii pp. £37.60 (hardback) £14.25 (paperback).

Cole Blasier, The Giant's Rival: the USSR and Latin America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1983, xvi + 213 pp. $7.95 (paperback).     

Use of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fingerprints for identity determination: comparison with traditional paternity testing methods--Part I

A study involving comparison of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) finger-printing test with traditional methods used for paternity testing is presented. Samples from 191 cases were tested for a series of blood group and polymorphic protein markers. DNA "fingerprints" were then obtained for all samples using the multilocus probes 33.6 and 33.15. The results of DNA fingerprinting correlated well with those of traditional methods and proved to be informative in cases where traditional methods yielded inconclusive or insufficient results.     

‘Lex Cryptographi(c)a,’ ‘Cloud Crypto Land’ or What? – Blockchain Technology on the Legal Hype Cycle

Based on the reception of DLT/blockchain, this article argues that legal discourse is subject to hype cycle dynamics. Thinking in hype cycle categories provides a structured way for analysing the legal implications of a particular innovation. This critical engagement with enthusiasts, sceptics and pragmatists through the different stages may help to present a more realistic picture of DLT/blockchain's potential from a legal perspective in the short and medium term. Consequently, this article discusses the potential for disruption to the legal system envisaged by enthusiasts at the height of inflated expectations, attempts to deconstruct the arguments levelled at the technology by its detractors during the trough of disillusionment, charts the emerging legal landscape that seeks to harness the potential of DLT/blockchain up the slope of enlightenment, and concludes by risking a glimpse towards the plateau of productivity.     

The origins of penal populism

Five years ago after 46 years of daily deadlines – the last 38 on The Guardian – I retired to explore, with the help of Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Nuffield College Oxford fellowships, just how much influence was played by the media in the policy making process. The exercise was prompted by rising public concern over the ever widening power of the media. Onora O'Neill, the philosopher, in her Reith lectures in 2002 on trust in public institutions, noted with irony that the main champion of transparency and accountability – the media – were themselves the least transparent and accountable group in democracy. Anthony Sampson, a distinguished journalist, in his fourth edition of Anatomy of Britain in 2004, documented just how entrenched this perception was.     

The Mauerschützenprozesse and the principle of nullum crimen sine lege

More than 50 years after the end of the Nuremberg Tribunal, the Berlin Mauerschiitzenprozesse, a series of trials in the Nuremberg tradition, devoted to bringing to justice former GDR soldiers and officials involved in the application of deadly force against Republikfluchtlinge on the inner German borders, have reached their crescendo. More than 50 soldiers and officials have received sentences of up to six years’ imprisonment. Among the many issues at hand, none are more important than that of nullum crimen sine lege, or the Rückwirkungsverbot. Is the process of trying and punishing former GDR soldiers and officials legally justifiable under Article 103, section 2 of the Grundgesetz? Or are the Mauerschützenprozesse a classic example of ‘victors ‘justice?’ Using the Nuremberg Tribunal as a foundation, this article will argue that the Mauerschiitzenprozesse are legitimate, and that the sentences imposed against GDR functionaries do not violate the principle of nullum crimen sine lege.