John Hazard: Political Reform and the Soviet State

Extract

In determining what Gorbachev's policies are, I consider the topic of law a very congenial one because he is a lawyer. While he is no longer a practitioner, he attended the same law school as I did long ago. His attitude towards law is as an implementation of policy, and, therefore, I believe that by reading the law, we can, through what is sometimes called reverse engineering, determine what his policies are in the matter of national minority concerns as well as on other matters. We can look upon what is seen on the surface as an indication of what is more deeply enshrined in his thinking. I always remember that Lenin said (and I was taught this my first day of school over there) that law was a political instrument, and I think Gorbachev is very much influenced by Lenin and Leninism. Consequently, I believe he accepts the position that law is indeed a political instrument. He would never accept what is now so popular in Europe: the theories of Lumans, who said that law has a life of its own, not because of its natural-law base, but because of what Lumans states, biological analogy.