Soviet Legal Innovation and the Law of the Western World

Book excerpt: This book explains an interaction between Soviet Russia and the West that has been overlooked in much of the analysis of the demise of the USSR. Legislation strikingly similar to the Marxist-inspired laws of Soviet Russia found its way into the legal systems of the Western world. Even though Western governments were at odds with the Soviet government, they were affected by the ideas it put forth. Western law was transformed radically during the course of the twentieth century, and much of that change was along lines first charted in Soviet law.