Publisher's Synopsis
"During the last years of its life the Soviet Union turned to law like a dying monarch to his withered God. Its successor, the Russian Federation, has adopted the same posture. In public discourse the phrases "civil society" and "law-governed state" have acquired hortatory force, the judges are bidden by law to wear robes, and the Congress and the Supreme Soviet enact and amend statutes with the fervor of one who sees in legislation the path to paradise." (Bernard Rudden, "Civil Society and Civil Law", The Revival of Private Law in Central and Eastern Europe.) Somewhat less dramatically, perhaps, the picture is repeated throughout the rest of the post-communist constituency.;The papers collected in this volume explore the web of relations between civil society, civil law, and the constitutional or law-governed state in this geo-political environment. They trace the process of resurgence of civil law institutions on the local scene during the seminal stages of the bid to effect the switch to an entrepreneurial civil culture. The focus is on the critical function performed by the civil law canon in the creation of a private economy and the flourishing of a civil society, with special emphasis on how the revival of a private law repertory can contribute toward containing the state's natural penchant for intrusion into most areas of public life and enhance the status of human rights. The impact of international legal standards on the development of this new outlook is also taken into account.;The result is a wide-ranging description and analysis of the progress recorded here thus far in removing the obstacles to completing the desired transition and an insightful evaluation of the prospects for bringing the humanistic and democratic revolution now being staged in each of these states to a successful conclusion. Particular attention is paid to the vital role of the legal media in this ongoing saga and their power to engineer such a metamorphosis.
