Socialist law

Until recently, the USSR and its satellites proclaimed that their socialism was producing an entirely new form of law, not to be judged by or even compared with the older systems. This view was said to be the scientific conclusion of a Marxist analysis. Even in those days, however, the systems' documents looked, on the surface, familiar: constitutions and civil codes many of whose rules bore - at least on paper - a strong resemblance to the traditional provisions.

The USSR's peaceful disintegration into 15 sovereign states has provoked much activity in fashioning new structures. Most of the states by now have a new democratic constitution and are drafting the rest of the legal system. Among the last acts of the old USSR was the enactment of a comprehensive framework of Basic Principles for private law. It was used in Russia as an interim instrument until the Civil Code of November 1994. In time the statute book will probably look much like those of the civil-law German-speaking countries. More problematic is the personnel to run the system, in the shape of lawyers and, above all, of judges who are well-trained, wise, and honest.

From its inception in 1949, the People's Republic of China's declared aim was to attain socialism. It abrogate d all earlier legislation and during the next decade much of the formal law appeared inspired by Soviet models. But the 'Great Leap Forward' of 1958 emphasized ideological leadership, law was denigrated and degraded during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), and it was not until the 1980s that something resembling a recognizable legal system began to appear. Under the 1982 Constitution, China - despite its size - is not a federation. The People's Congress is the named legislator and the 'executive' is the State Council, although much power remains with the Chinese Communist Party. The pre-Cultural Revolution legal structure has been partly resurrected, and a legal framework of codes enacted. The Basic Principles of Civil Law contain many provisions that would be familiar to Western jurists. The actual functioning of the system, however, is affected by the persistent attitude that makes law subordinate to the decisions of central and local political authorities.

Islam

The number of Muslim countries is growing, but the main common feature is the Islamic religion which aims to cover all areas of life, not merely the spiritual. It thus has the features of a religious system of law, as described above. In its strongest formulation, some Islamic scholars state that law cannot exist outside religion and therefore the state has no power to legislate. But in practice the religion is found in countries with very different histories, whose formal legal systems vary from the absolute sovereignty of some Gulf states through the French and Swiss-influenced codes of Egypt and Turkey, the common-law patterns of Pakistan and India, the Soviet structures of the central Asian republics, to the revolutionary councils and tribunals of Iran.

Hindu law

Unrivalled in age and continuity, the Hindu law found in India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Malaysia and parts of East Africa is contained in a literature which is vast, complex and seemingly impossible to summarize. Its laws and customs are derived from sages of the past who were themselves taught by a creator, it preach es the birth, death and rebirth of living things, and its precept s cover many more activities than does any secular legal system. In the countries mentioned, however, it governs only the personal and family relations of those involved and its family law has been codified and much amended, especially in India. Nonetheless it can affect the lives of some 450 million people.

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