The Dinstinctiveness Of Soviet Law

This volume examines the elements of formalism and decisionism in Russian legal thinking and, also, the impact of conservatism on the interplay of these elements. This combination leads to internal contradictions in theorizing about law and rights in Russian legal culture.

This is the first treatise on Russia's new legal system, as it emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The first part of the book analyses in detail the political and economic origins of "perestroika," indispensable for understanding the basic parameters of the evolution of Russian law. In the following chapters all major legal subjects are discussed against the background of their Soviet past and as the result of the radical changes in the political, social and economic make-up of the country. The appendices include the texts of the U.S.S.R. and Russian Constitutions, the Agreement of Minsk, The Russian Federation Treaty, bibliographical sources, and extensive indices of Soviet and Russian legislation. The book has been written for legal practitioners, comparative lawyers, and students of Russian law, but will also be of interest to a wider audience of political scientists, journalists, etc.

The Oxford Handbook of Criminal Law reflects the continued transformation of criminal law into a global discipline, providing scholars with a comprehensive international resource, a common point of entry into cutting edge contemporary research and a snapshot of the state and scope of the field. To this end, the Handbook takes a broad approach to its subject matter, disciplinarily, geographically, and systematically. Its contributors include current and future research leaders representing a variety of legal systems, methodologies, areas of expertise, and research agendas. The Handbook is divided into four parts: Approaches & Methods (I), Systems & Methods (II), Aspects & Issues (III), and Contexts & Comparisons (IV). Part I includes essays exploring various methodological approaches to criminal law (such as criminology, feminist studies, and history). Part II provides an overview of systems or models of criminal law, laying the foundation for further inquiry into specific conceptions of criminal law as well as for comparative analysis (such as Islamic, Marxist, and military law). Part III covers the three aspects of the penal process: the definition of norms and principles of liability (substantive criminal law), along with a less detailed treatment of the imposition of norms (criminal procedure) and the infliction of sanctions (prison law). Contributors consider the basic topics traditionally addressed in scholarship on the general and special parts of the substantive criminal law (such as jurisdiction, mens rea, justifications, and excuses). Part IV places criminal law in context, both domestically and transnationally, by exploring the contrasts between criminal law and other species of law and state power and by investigating criminal law's place in the projects of comparative law, transnational, and international law.