Law and the Making of the Soviet World ― The Red Demiurge

This book is an unconventional reappraisal of Soviet law: a field that is ripe for re-evaluation, now that it is clear of Cold War cobwebs and, as this book shows, and that appears surprisingly topical and newly compelling. Drawing on a wide range of sources - including Russian-language Soviet statues and regulations, jurisprudence and legal theory, English-language 'legal Kremlinology,’ and works of general legal, political, social, and economic theory – this book analyses the central significance of law in the design and operation of Soviet economic, political, and social institutions. In short, Scott Newton argues here that the Soviet order was a work of law. And, in arguing that it was an exemplary, rather than aberrant, case of the uses to which law was put in twentieth century industrialised societies, this book provides an insightful account, not only of the significance of modern law to the Soviet case, but of significance of the Soviet case for modern law.