SOCIALIST LEGAL SYSTEM

By

I PUTU ALIT ARSANA

FACULTY OF LAW

UNIVERSITY OF MATARAM

2018/2019
 THE UNDERSTANDING AND CONCEPTS OF SOCIALIST LAW

Socialist Law is the official name for the legal system in communist countries. The
word socialist when used in relation to law has many different meanings among jurists.
Basically, the word "socialist" denotes the philosophy and ideology based on which generally
refers to the thinking of "Marxist-Leninist" theory.

The concept of “socialist law” is difficult to define. The term "socialism" (socialist,
socialist, etc.) has a different meaning for each person. All "socialist" movements have a
common characteristic, namely that they place greater importance on the "collective good"
over individual interests. In a narrower context, "socialism" refers to a system in which the
means of production are owned by the community (usually the state) and managed through
central planning.

Socialist ideology is always associated with the principle that the whole of law is an
instrument of economic and social policy, and common law and civil law habits represent
capitalist, bourgeois, imperialist, exploitation of society, economy and government.

Socialist law denotes a general type of legal system that has been used in communist
and formerly communist countries. It is based on the civil law system, modifying the main
and auxiliary systems of the Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Marxist-Leninist theory is built on the basis of the doctrine of “dialectical or historical

materialism” which argues that society moves to various stages and phases in living it are
evolution and development. It probably started out without a legal system, then became one
of ownership of workers, followed by a level from medieval times, before moving into
capitalism, then socialism before finally getting worse in law in a classless society with no
interest in any legal system because all human beings would talk to each other. justice for
each other.

There is controversy as to whether socialist law was once a separate legal system or
not. If so, before the end of the Cold War, socialist law would rank among the major legal
systems in the world.

Law by its government or leaders is used as a means in planning and organizing the
economic and social structure, and it is only part of the ideological structure that controls the
material reality of the means of production, it is determined and defined in terms of its
political function. That all legal ideals are related to the state and are therefore a means by
which those who control the means of production continue to monitor those whose rights
have been deprived of them. With the transfer of ownership of the means of production into
the hands of society, individuals will be involved, just like the state and law, which is justified
by necessity and coercion.
 Socialist legal systems are the laws of countries whose governments officially view
the country as socialist or moving from capitalism to socialism, and consider a communist
society as the ultimate goal.

The socialist legal system stems from the laws of the Soviet Union that were
developed since 1917, which this year saw the October Revolution that ended the government
of the Russian empire. This law has spread through people's democratic politics to countries
in Europe and Asia. The main point of the socialist legal system is the law inspired by the
Marxist-Lenimism teachings adopted by legal experts in the Soviet Union as well as the
teachings of materialism and the theory of evolution where it is said that matter is the only
real thing in this world.

The group of countries that use the socialist legal system is divided into 2 groups,
namely:

1. Old or older socialist jurisdictions, such as Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary,

Czechoslovakia, Romania, Albania, People's Republic of China, People's Republic of
Vietnam, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mongolia ( is the oldest national
legal system in the group) and Cuba.
2. Newest or later developed Socialist Legal systems, such as the Democratic Republic
of Cambodia, Laos, Mozambique, Angola, Somalia, Libya, Ethiopia, Guiena and
Guyana.

The Communist Party is the truly governing and planning body of the socialist legal
system. Once it is decided as part of the policy, they communicate their plan to all state
institutions and this policy will be followed by the legislature, executive and judiciary.

R. Sardjono said that the law in socialist countries is intended to build a new society,
to support the emergence of a new society in accordance with the teachings of Marxism
which is fundamentally different from the previous situation where economic factors are the
main and determining factors in the life of the nation and state. In the sense that everything
must be subject to the will of the authorities who are tasked with leading the transformation
of the old social structure towards the creation of a new society imbued with communist
teachings that prioritize the principle of collectivity in its absolute form. As a result,
individual relationships are reduced because everything becomes public. Thus, the priority is
the public interest and the interest of the state.

According to the socialist legal system, law is a tool to suppress the oppressed class,
namely interests and injustice. A just law means calling for an ideology. The function of
socialist law is not to express a certain concept of justice but to organize the economic forces
of the nation and to transform the behavior and attitudes of citizens. Thus the countries that
follow this socialist legal system only recognize the concept of public law while the concept
of private law does not exist. The socialist legal system based on communist doctrine ignores
the principles of justice and morals. Socialist legal doctrine based on the doctrine of Marxism
teaches that law is actually a structure that serves economic interests. For Marxism law is a
tool of wisdom for those who govern. The laws in force in the Soviet Union have no absolute
value in themselves.

The teachings of Marxism Lenism reject the principle of power sharing in the system
of government. All power is concentrated in the hands of the holder of the highest power,
executive, legislative and judicial powers are exercised executive by the holder of the highest
power.
 THE HISTORY OF THE FORM OF SOCIALIST LAW

After the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the temptation arose to
leave the socialist legal system to legal history textbooks. However, not so easily removed,
socialist family law still applies to nearly half the world's population. There are countries
outside Europe that still adhere to a socialist legal system, for example Cuba. It must also be
considered that all former socialist countries were forced to live with the remnants of socialist
law that began to abandon the planned economic system, for example Vietnam and Laos and
it cannot be ignored that socialism accompanied by socialist law will surely reign in certain
countries, even if only temporarily and under very special conditions, for example in some
countries that were once part of the Soviet Union and have now become independent
countries.

The focus is on common characteristics and without mentioning significant

differences. Historically, socialist law was considered an additional phenomenon. The initial
trigger was the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia (despite a short-lived attempt at
socialism in 1871 during the so-called Paris Commune), as a result of which socialist law was
seen as a very young phenomenon.

sovietstate quickly abolished the pre-revolutionary legal order and announced an

absolute severance from all previous legal traditions. Soviet law was presented as a
completely new and superior law, completely different from bourgeois capitalist law.

Socialist law is based on the Marxist-Leninist theory of Law. The official

Marxist-Leninist legal ideology held sole control in all the socialist countries of Eastern
Europe. The theory is built on something called historical materialism (a materialistic
understanding of history). According to this teaching, developments in society, including
legal developments, are determined by the level of community economic development which
in turn is determined by the development of production facilities, especially technological
advances.

Socialists may eventually replace capitalism, not because of the fact that socialism is
more moral than capitalism but rather because it is more productive. Marx, Engels and Lenin
had absolutely no doubt that socialism as a mode of production was superior to capitalism.
However, Marxism-Leninism does not regard socialism as the final stage in the development
of society, that final stage is the stage of communism, when the means of production become
so developed that everything is obtained in abundance and as a result the money economy
and other mechanisms of distribution and rationing of goods and services do not exist. needed
again. Communist society can also develop its noble character by voluntarily working for the
common good without demanding anything in return. Of course there will be rules regarding
interventions that are treated with the general use of coercion, for example against violence
against the soul, but these rules have no “legal character”.
The rule of law is defined as a statement of the will of the ruling class supported by the state.
The tool state belongs to the ruling class, so the ruling class will be able to protect its class
interests. During the early stages of human history when there were no class divisions, no law
or state could exist, not denying that there were rules, but refusing to call them laws. From a
Marxist-Leninist class perspective, the state and law are temporary phenomena that exist only
for a relatively short period of time.

Another important characteristic, both state and law as a means of class dictatorship.
Lenin argued that the socialist state was a dictatorship of the proletariat, intended as a
government based on terror and characterized by the absence of individual freedoms. In
short, Marxism-Leninism regards law as a superstructure determined by the means of
production.

SOURCES OF SOCIALIST LAW

 Sources of law in the socialist legal system are: The supreme decision of the rulers in
the form of a product of government or state policy. The point is that there is no official, clear
source of law:

1. Law is the ruler of the state, the rule of law is defined as the statement of the will of
the ruling class backed by the state. The tool state belongs to the ruling class, so the
ruling class will be able to protect its class interests. During the early stages of human
history when there were no class divisions, no law or state could exist, not denying
that there were rules, but refusing to call them laws. From a Marxist-Leninist class
perspective, the state and law are temporary phenomena that exist only for a relatively
short period of time. In the sense that everything must be subject to the will of the
authorities who are tasked with leading the transformation of the old social structure
towards the creation of a new society imbued with communist teachings that prioritize
the principle of collectivity in its absolute form. As a result, individual relationships
are reduced because everything becomes public. Thus, the priority is the public
interest and the interests of the state, and
2. the law to defend the proletarian people. According to the socialist legal system, law
is a tool to suppress the oppressed class of society, namely from an interest and
injustice. A just law means calling for an ideology.

NATURE, CHARACTERISTICS AND FEATURES OF SOCIALIST LAW

 Socialist law is a law similar to public law or civil law, but with a marked increase in
public law and a decrease in private law: the

● partial or total expulsion of the former ruling class from public life in the early stages
of the existence of every socialist state, but in all countries. socialist this policy has
gradually turned into the policy of "one classless socialist state" the
● diversity of political views is directly discouraged.
● the ruling communist party was eventually subject to prosecution via the party
committee in the first place.
● the abolition of private property (not intended as private property) is considered the
main goal of socialism, if it does not determine the characteristics, so that it is close to
the total collectivization and nationalization of property;
● low respect for privacy, broad control of the party over private life;
● low to respect intellectual property as knowledge and culture that is considered a right
for human beings, and not a privilege as in a free market economy.
● the state's extensive social warrants (right to work, free education, free health care,
pensions at 60 for men and 55 for women, maternity leave, free disability benefits and
sick leave compensation, subsidies for families of many children, and so on) in return
for high rates social mobilization.
● the judicial process has no enemy character; the public prosecutor is considered a
"provider of justice."

Quigley summarizes the various features of socialist law whose features are as
follows:

1. socialist law is programmed to disappear gradually with the loss of private property
rights and social classes and the transition to a communistic social order;
2. socialist countries are dominated by a single political party;
3. in the socialist system law is subordinated to create a new economic order in which
private law is absorbed by public law;
4. socialist law has a character called pseudo-religious character;
5. socialist law is more prerogative than normative;

A special institution characteristic of socialist law is the so-called burlaw court (or,
verbally, "comrade court", Russian оварищеский ) which decides on various misdemeanors.