NCJ Number
128946
Journal
Journal Volume: 76 Dated: (October 1990) Pages: 58-60,62,64,66-67
Date Published
1990
Length
7 pages
Annotation
An American lawyer recounts her experiences during an 8-day trip to Moscow, noting some of the economic and social problems currently faced by Soviet citizens and significant changes to the Soviet legal system.
Abstract
Soviet citizens are hard hit by persistent inflation, long lines at State-owned stores, and chronic shortages. Organized crime, known locally as the Moscow Mafia, has set up extortion rackets to prey on new businesses. Statistics show a rise in violent crime, and many citizens are calling for law and order. Gorbachev has been emphasizing a law-based State since 1985. He has used law to redistribute economic rights, stimulate and codify social change, and respond to a crisis of confidence. He is using legal solutions for problems to which leaders in the past routinely applied administrative or political solutions. Several laws were passed in 1989 to strengthen the judiciary. Now elected for 10-year terms, judges have higher salaries, certain housing guarantees, and contempt powers. A right to trial by jury has also been established, and laws have been passed that extend greater rights to criminal defendants, offer protection against bureaucratic abuse, and establish freedom of the press and the right of assembly. Some observers, however, do not believe that law is enough to solve the Soviet Union's deepening crisis. The Soviet Union has a bar association, and civil and criminal defense lawyers account for slightly more than 10 percent of the country's 230,000-lawyer bar. Other Soviet lawyers work as prosecutors, inhouse counsel, arbitrators, judges, and police investigators. Civil and criminal defense lawyers are regulated by regional colleges of lawyers that report to the Ministry of Justice through a board of directors.