Human Rights and the Emergence of the State of the Rule of Law in the USSR
![handle is hein.journals/emlj40 and id is 899 raw text is: HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE
STATE OF THE RULE OF LAW IN THE USSR
Vladimir A. Kartashkin*
I. INTRODUCTION: THE WESTERN LEGACY
There are events in the history of mankind which are epochal. These
events impact the development of individual countries and peoples, and
moreover, they have a lasting effect on all mankind. The adoption of the
United States Constitution and Bill of Rights was just such an event.
These documents, together with the French Declaration of the Rights of
Man and Citizen, heralded the birth of a world based on new social rela-
tionships. This new world was founded on the rule of law and the obser-
vance of inviolable and inalienable human rights and freedoms.
Influenced by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights and by
the French Declaration, European nations incorporated into their consti-
tutions a catalogue of fundamental rights and freedoms. These documents
have also been greatly appreciated by many scholars and statesmen in
Russia. In analyzing the implementation of the United States Constitution
and Bill of Rights, P. Mizhuev, a prominent Russian scholar, wrote that
the great American democracy did more to ensure the triumph of the
rule of law than any other country in the world. In the United States,
Mizhuev pointed out, unlike in England and other European countries,
suspension of the constitutional safeguards protecting human rights is un-
known. It is in the United States that the people, besides being the
source of power, are its only possessor in the full measure as well, while
all bodies of authority possess only such authority as are granted to them
by the sovereign people in accordance with the Constitution.'
II. THE SOVIET POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT: PAST AND PRESENT
This Western legacy - the ideas of freedom, equality, and justice pro-
claimed by the United States and Europe - was rejected by Russia dur-
* Professor of International Law, P. Lumumba University; Institute of State and Law of the
USSR; Visiting Professor, Cornell Law School, 1990-91.
P. MIZHUEV, PRAVA CHELOVEKA I GRAZHDANINA [THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND CITIZEN] 104
(1906).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/emlj40&div=32&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Human Rights and the Emergence of the State of the Rule of Law in the USSR
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