Soviet and East European Law and the Scientific-Technical Revolution discusses the various perceptions and understandings of the scientific technical revolution (STR) and its effect on the legal systems of the USSR and the East European nations. This book is composed 11 chapters and begins with a description of the relationship of the STR and law and how law is used as a means of manipulating the STR and directing its development. The succeeding chapters explore the STR in the realm of ideas or doctrine relating to management theory and jurisprudence. These topics are followed by discussions of the constitutional enactments influenced by the STR and the developments of administrative and labor laws. The remaining chapters highlight the tangible results of efforts to shape the STR. These chapters also look into the development of mechanisms for the transfer of technology between the Soviet Union and the Eastern Europe. This book is intended for historians and the general public who are interested in scientific-technical revolution.

In the past, Soviet policymakers, planners, and jurists, in their enthusiasm for economic and technological development, devoted little attention to the often negative consequences of modernization. New concerns, however, have become apparent in recent literature, statutes, and decrees. In this book, political scientists and experts on Soviet law address many of those concerns, analyzing the legal issues associated with economic modernization in the USSR. The central themes of the book are the increasingly centralized nature of the policymaking process in the USSR and Eastern Europe and the marked tendency to rely on law as a principal mechanism for managing the undesirable consequences of scientific and technological progress. The authors also assess the impact of the scientific-technical revolution on Soviet-East European relations and East-West relations, emphasizing the foreign policy consequences of increased financial and technological interdependence. The study does not deal with narrow legalistic issues of technical progress; rather, its focus on policy questions reflects the inclination of Soviet and Eastern European governments to view those questions in terms of law and legislative activity and to see law as an instrument of social engineering.