Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

While Marxist doctrine teaches that the movement of society from socialism toward communism should reduce and ultimately eliminate crime, the Soviet legal system takes a far more pragmatic view. In the seventy years of Soviet rule, criminal law has been codified and recodifled and now occupies a central place in the architecture of socialist legality.' The most recent and, in many ways, the most important effort at criminal law codification, the Fundamental Principles of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics [1988 Draft], appeared in Izvestia on December 17, 1988.

In the United States as well as in the Soviet Union, codification of federal criminal law is an undertaking of major historical and political significance. Federal criminal law, "because of its nationwide scope, visibility, and traditions, must be considered the most important system in the nation-the one that in many of its aspects serves as a model for all of the others."'

In both republics, criminal statutes date back to the founding of the nation.' While both the United States and the Soviet Union have enacted many criminal statutes, comprehensive codification of federal criminal law has been a rare event.

The first major effort at comprehensive codification of federal criminal law in the United States was the Criminal Code of 1909, the product of a congressional commission which labored on the project for more than a decade.' A second codification occurred in 1948.6 Both of these efforts "mainly involved compilation and consolidation of existing criminal laws rather than law reforms." 7 A more ambitious effort at comprehensive codification of American federal criminal law began in the late 1960s. After a decade of work, the National Commission on the Reform of the Federal Criminal Laws produced a study draft in 1970 and a final report the following year. 8 "Although considered in Congress on several occasions, the Commission's draft was never enacted into law."

Codification of federal criminal law in the Soviet Union is also a relatively infrequent event. The first federal constitution of the Soviet Union, that of July 6, 1923, entrusted the responsibility of "establishing the principles [Osnovy] of criminal law" to the federal legislature.10 On October 31, 1924, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR enacted the Fundamental Principles [Osnovnye nachala] of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics." Despite constitutional authorization, no new Soviet federal criminal codification took place for thirty-four years. On December 25, 1958, the Principles of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics [1958 Principles] were enacted by the Supreme Soviet."2 The 1958 Principles formed the foundation for the general part of the fifteen union republics.

After a span of thirty more years, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet announced that a legislative Commission of the Two Houses of the USSR Supreme Soviet had completed a new draft of federal criminal legislation-the Fundamental Principles of Criminal Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics.' An accompanying edict of the Presidium declared that the Legislative Commission would submit its critical comments and report to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet following "all people discussion,"" but not later than March 15, 1989. In all probability, the newly elected Supreme Soviet will enact new fundamental principles of criminal legislation sometime in 1989.1 Such an enactment would set the tone for criminal justice during the Gorbachev era. This brief essay, circumscribed by necessary time and space constraints, responds to the unusual opportunity1 " for critical comment on the 1988 Draft.

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