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The French Deviation

The French Deviation JOH N HENRY MERRYMAN To a comparative lawyer, the end of th e socialist revolution in th e Soviet Union and its satellites provides a number of topics for reflection. For one, why did th e effort to build a socialist legal system following the 1917 Revolution produce such apparently inconsequen­ tial results? The American and French Revolutions are generally thought to have had fundamental, lasting legal consequences that are clearly visible today in legal systems throughout the world, but Soviet socialist law a t its height seems never to have penetrated the surface of th e culture in th e USSR or elsewhere. Socialist legal prin­ in retrospect to have been at most a sort of temporary ciples appear superstructur e erected on a legal base that was largely Western in character. With th e en d of th e Soviet experiment tha t superstructure has been dismantled, leaving few marks. To us e a different meta­ phor, the Western legal body appears to have rejected the socialist transplant . The attempt to build a socialist legal order now looks more like a temporary deviation than a new direction. My purpose here is to discuss a legal invention http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Journal of Comparative Law Oxford University Press

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Publisher
Oxford University Press
Copyright
© 1996 by The American Society of Comparative Law, Inc.
ISSN
0002-919X
eISSN
2326-9197
DOI
10.2307/840522
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

JOH N HENRY MERRYMAN To a comparative lawyer, the end of th e socialist revolution in th e Soviet Union and its satellites provides a number of topics for reflection. For one, why did th e effort to build a socialist legal system following the 1917 Revolution produce such apparently inconsequen­ tial results? The American and French Revolutions are generally thought to have had fundamental, lasting legal consequences that are clearly visible today in legal systems throughout the world, but Soviet socialist law a t its height seems never to have penetrated the surface of th e culture in th e USSR or elsewhere. Socialist legal prin­ in retrospect to have been at most a sort of temporary ciples appear superstructur e erected on a legal base that was largely Western in character. With th e en d of th e Soviet experiment tha t superstructure has been dismantled, leaving few marks. To us e a different meta­ phor, the Western legal body appears to have rejected the socialist transplant . The attempt to build a socialist legal order now looks more like a temporary deviation than a new direction. My purpose here is to discuss a legal invention

Journal

American Journal of Comparative LawOxford University Press

Published: Jan 1, 1996

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