PASHUKANIS AND VYSHINSKY: A STUDY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARXIAN LEGAL THEORY

Authors

Lon L. Fuller, Harvard Law School

Abstract

Reading Andrei Y. Vyshinsky's The Law of the Soviet Union ought to be a stimulating and rewarding experience. It is an exposition. of Soviet legal philosophy and of the theory and practice of Soviet public or "state" law. Throughout it purports to compare the premises that underlie Soviet law with those on which ''bourgeois" legal systems are based. Vyshinsky, a famous world figure and the present minister for foreign affairs of the U.S.S.R., wrote part of the book and supervised compiliation of the remainder. The decision of the American Council of Learned Societies to sponsor a translation of the work attests the Council's conception of its importance to Americans seeking to understand modem Russia. According to the introduction by Professor Hazard, the book presents in authoritative form the doctrine now taught in Soviet law schools. More than that, it exemplifies "Soviet pedagogical methods" generally, and the habits of thought that have become characteristic of Soviet citizens. These methods and habits in tum help to explain, Professor Hazard assures us, "much of the determination of Soviet soldiers in the war just ended." Here, in other words, is what makes the Soviet system tick.

Recommended Citation

Lon L. Fuller, PASHUKANIS AND VYSHINSKY: A STUDY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARXIAN LEGAL THEORY, 47 Mich. L. Rev. 1157 (1949).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol47/iss8/8