Chapter Eight
Socialist law
Dr Khalil Hussein
Professor at Lebanese University
Director of studies at Lebanese Parliament
Socialist law is the official name of the legal system used in Socialist states. It is based on the civil law system, with major modifications and additions from Marxist-Leninist ideology. While civil law systems have traditionally put great pains in defining the notion of private property, how it may be acquired, transferred, or lost, Socialist law systems provide for most property to be owned by the state or by agricultural co-operatives, and having special courts and laws for state enterprises.
Prior to the end of the Cold War, Socialist Law was generally ranked among the major legal systems of the world. However, many contemporary observers no longer consider it to be such, due to similarities with the civil law system and the fact that it is no longer in widespread use following the dismantling of most communist states.
Furthermore, many scholars argue that socialist law was simply not a separate legal classification[1]. Although the command economy approach of the communist states meant that property could not be owned, the Soviet Union always had a civil code, courts that interpreted this civil code, and a civil law approach to legal reasoning (thus, both legal process and legal reasoning were largely analogous to the French or German civil code system).
Law of the Soviet Union
The Law of the Soviet Union -also known as Soviet Law, or Socialist Law-was the law that developed in the Soviet Union following the Russian October Revolution of 1917; modified versions of it were adopted by many Communist states (see below) following the Second World War.
Soviet Law had some of the characteristics of civil law systems, including some similar rules of procedure and legal methodologies.
History and influence of Soviet Law
The legal system of the Soviet Union was the principal model followed by other members of the Soviet family of legal systems (Mongolia, the People's Republic of China, the countries of eastern Europe, Cuba and Vietnam being the most notable). This legal system was developed after the Russian Revolution and based on traditional Western civil law, with many elements originating in the Russian legal tradition (going back as far as the 10th century Kievan Rus) and influences from Byzantine secular and canon law[2].
In 1917, the Soviet authorities formally repealed all Tsarist legislation and began to establish a socialist system with the final aim of reaching communism. The vast majority of Marxist theory concerned itself with matters of politics, economics and sociology, not legislation, and thus "socialist law" had to be built from scratch, using mostly non-Marxist legal theory. A few general guidelines were laid out. First, the new legal system should eliminate the political power and dominance of the bourgeoisie; second, law should be the instrument of the state and the people, not a restriction to policy-makers; third, law should establish rules of public order which ease the state's transition into socialism and eventually communism; and fourth, law should educate citizens in how they can help to build a communist social system. This is the basis on which Soviet Law was constructed.
The structure of a Soviet court
Soviet Law did not use an adversarial system, in which a plaintiff and defendant argue before a neutral judge. Instead, court proceedings in the Soviet Union included a judge, a procurator, a defense attorney and two people's assessors, and allowed for free participation by the judge. This same system was used for all cases, due to a lack of distinction between civil and criminal law.
Judges kept legal technicalities to a minimum; the court's stated purpose was to find the truth, rather than to protect legal rights. Other aspects of Soviet Law more closely resembled the Anglo-Saxon system. In theory, all citizens were equal before the law—defendants could appeal to a higher court if they believed their sentence to be too harsh. However, the procurator could also appeal if he/she considered the sentence to be too lenient. Soviet Law also guaranteed defendants the right to legal representation, and the right to be tried in their native language, or to use an interpreter. Although most hearings were open to the public, hearings could also be held privately, if the Soviet Government deemed it necessary.
Chinese Socialist law
Among the remaining communist governments, some (most notably the People's Republic of China) have added extensive modifications to their legal systems. In general, this is a result of their market-oriented economic changes. However, some communist influence can still be seen - for example, in Chinese real estate law there is no unified concept of real property; the state owns all land but often not the structures that sit on that land. A rather complex ad-hoc system of use rights to land property has developed, and these use rights are the things being officially traded (rather than the property itself). In some cases the system results in something that resembles real property transactions in other legal systems.
In other cases, the Chinese system results in something quite different. For example, it is a common misconception that reforms under Deng Xiaoping resulted in the privatization of agricultural land and a creation of a land tenure system similar to those found in Western countries. In actuality, the village committee owns the land and contracts the right to use this land to individual farmers who may use the land to make money from agriculture. Hence the rights that are normally unified in Western economies are split up between the individual farmer and the village committee[3].
This has a number of consequences. One of them is that because the farmer does not have an absolute right to transfer the land, he cannot borrow against his use rights. On the other hand, there is some insurance against risk in the system, in that the farmer can return his land to the village committee if he wants to stop farming and start some other sort of business. Then, if this business does not work, he can get a new contract with the village committee and return to farming. The fact that the land is redistributable by the village committee also ensures that no one is left landless and creates a form of social welfare.
There have been a number of proposals to reform this system and they have tended to be in the direction of fully privatizing rural land for the alleged purpose of increasing efficiency. These proposals have usually not received any significant support, largely because of the popularity of the current system among the farmers themselves. There is little risk that the village committee will attempt to impose a bad contract on the farmers, since this would reduce the amount of money the village committee receives. At the same time, the farmer has some flexibility to decide to leave farming for other ventures and to return at a later time.
[1] See Christine Sypnowich, The Concept of Socialist Law, Oxford University Press,
[2]O. S. (Olimpiad Solomonovich) Ioffeو Soviet Law and Soviet Reality, Published by BRILL.
[3] See Nicholson, Pip, John Stanley Gillespie, Asian Socialism & Legal Change, Asia Pacific Press,2005.
Socialist law
Dr Khalil Hussein
Professor at Lebanese University
Director of studies at Lebanese Parliament
Socialist law is the official name of the legal system used in Socialist states. It is based on the civil law system, with major modifications and additions from Marxist-Leninist ideology. While civil law systems have traditionally put great pains in defining the notion of private property, how it may be acquired, transferred, or lost, Socialist law systems provide for most property to be owned by the state or by agricultural co-operatives, and having special courts and laws for state enterprises.
Prior to the end of the Cold War, Socialist Law was generally ranked among the major legal systems of the world. However, many contemporary observers no longer consider it to be such, due to similarities with the civil law system and the fact that it is no longer in widespread use following the dismantling of most communist states.
Furthermore, many scholars argue that socialist law was simply not a separate legal classification[1]. Although the command economy approach of the communist states meant that property could not be owned, the Soviet Union always had a civil code, courts that interpreted this civil code, and a civil law approach to legal reasoning (thus, both legal process and legal reasoning were largely analogous to the French or German civil code system).
Law of the Soviet Union
The Law of the Soviet Union -also known as Soviet Law, or Socialist Law-was the law that developed in the Soviet Union following the Russian October Revolution of 1917; modified versions of it were adopted by many Communist states (see below) following the Second World War.
Soviet Law had some of the characteristics of civil law systems, including some similar rules of procedure and legal methodologies.
History and influence of Soviet Law
The legal system of the Soviet Union was the principal model followed by other members of the Soviet family of legal systems (Mongolia, the People's Republic of China, the countries of eastern Europe, Cuba and Vietnam being the most notable). This legal system was developed after the Russian Revolution and based on traditional Western civil law, with many elements originating in the Russian legal tradition (going back as far as the 10th century Kievan Rus) and influences from Byzantine secular and canon law[2].
In 1917, the Soviet authorities formally repealed all Tsarist legislation and began to establish a socialist system with the final aim of reaching communism. The vast majority of Marxist theory concerned itself with matters of politics, economics and sociology, not legislation, and thus "socialist law" had to be built from scratch, using mostly non-Marxist legal theory. A few general guidelines were laid out. First, the new legal system should eliminate the political power and dominance of the bourgeoisie; second, law should be the instrument of the state and the people, not a restriction to policy-makers; third, law should establish rules of public order which ease the state's transition into socialism and eventually communism; and fourth, law should educate citizens in how they can help to build a communist social system. This is the basis on which Soviet Law was constructed.
The structure of a Soviet court
Soviet Law did not use an adversarial system, in which a plaintiff and defendant argue before a neutral judge. Instead, court proceedings in the Soviet Union included a judge, a procurator, a defense attorney and two people's assessors, and allowed for free participation by the judge. This same system was used for all cases, due to a lack of distinction between civil and criminal law.
Judges kept legal technicalities to a minimum; the court's stated purpose was to find the truth, rather than to protect legal rights. Other aspects of Soviet Law more closely resembled the Anglo-Saxon system. In theory, all citizens were equal before the law—defendants could appeal to a higher court if they believed their sentence to be too harsh. However, the procurator could also appeal if he/she considered the sentence to be too lenient. Soviet Law also guaranteed defendants the right to legal representation, and the right to be tried in their native language, or to use an interpreter. Although most hearings were open to the public, hearings could also be held privately, if the Soviet Government deemed it necessary.
Chinese Socialist law
Among the remaining communist governments, some (most notably the People's Republic of China) have added extensive modifications to their legal systems. In general, this is a result of their market-oriented economic changes. However, some communist influence can still be seen - for example, in Chinese real estate law there is no unified concept of real property; the state owns all land but often not the structures that sit on that land. A rather complex ad-hoc system of use rights to land property has developed, and these use rights are the things being officially traded (rather than the property itself). In some cases the system results in something that resembles real property transactions in other legal systems.
In other cases, the Chinese system results in something quite different. For example, it is a common misconception that reforms under Deng Xiaoping resulted in the privatization of agricultural land and a creation of a land tenure system similar to those found in Western countries. In actuality, the village committee owns the land and contracts the right to use this land to individual farmers who may use the land to make money from agriculture. Hence the rights that are normally unified in Western economies are split up between the individual farmer and the village committee[3].
This has a number of consequences. One of them is that because the farmer does not have an absolute right to transfer the land, he cannot borrow against his use rights. On the other hand, there is some insurance against risk in the system, in that the farmer can return his land to the village committee if he wants to stop farming and start some other sort of business. Then, if this business does not work, he can get a new contract with the village committee and return to farming. The fact that the land is redistributable by the village committee also ensures that no one is left landless and creates a form of social welfare.
There have been a number of proposals to reform this system and they have tended to be in the direction of fully privatizing rural land for the alleged purpose of increasing efficiency. These proposals have usually not received any significant support, largely because of the popularity of the current system among the farmers themselves. There is little risk that the village committee will attempt to impose a bad contract on the farmers, since this would reduce the amount of money the village committee receives. At the same time, the farmer has some flexibility to decide to leave farming for other ventures and to return at a later time.
[1] See Christine Sypnowich, The Concept of Socialist Law, Oxford University Press,
[2]O. S. (Olimpiad Solomonovich) Ioffeو Soviet Law and Soviet Reality, Published by BRILL.
[3] See Nicholson, Pip, John Stanley Gillespie, Asian Socialism & Legal Change, Asia Pacific Press,2005.
