An examination of the effort to create a "law-based" state in the Gorbachev-era USSR, thus effecting a fundamental change in the relationship between the state and private groups and individuals. Social, historical, conceptual, and institutional aspects of legal development are discussed.

The Contributors, List of Abbreviations, Preface, Introduction, Part I. Historical and Conceptual Background, The Rise and Fall of the Law-Based State in the Experience of Russian Legal Scholarship: Foreign Scholarship and Domestic Style, From Legal Nihilism to Pravovoe Gosudarstvo: Soviet Legal Development, 1917-1990, The Rule of Law and the Law-Based State with Special Reference to the Soviet Union, Part II. Pravovoe Gosudorstvo and Soviet Society, Legal Consciousness and the Pravovoe Gosudarstvo, Regional and National Variations: The Baltic Factor, The Evolution of the Soviet Constitution, The Soviet Legislature: Gorbachev's School of Democracy, Executive Power and the Concept of Pravovoe Gosudarstvo, The Law-Based State and the CPSU, Part III. The Impact of Substantive and Procedural Law on Individuals and Organizations, Domestic Law and International Law: Importing Superior Standards, The Fate of Individual Rights in the Age of Perestroika, Informal Politics and the Rule of Law, Reforming Criminal Law Under Gorbachev: Crime, Punishment, and the Rights of the Accused, The Quest for Judicial Independence: Soviet Courts in a Pravovoe Gosudarstvo, Substantive and Procedural Protection of the Rights of Economic Entities and Their Owners, Soviet Civil Law and the Emergence of a Pravovoe Gosudarstvo: Do Foreigners Figure in the Grand Scheme?, The Ideals of the Pravovoe Gosudarstvo and the Soviet Workplace: A Case Study of Layoffs, Part IV. Commentary, Soviet Legal Developments 1917-1990: A Comment, The Baltic Case and the Problem of Creating a Law-Based State, Lawmaking Under Gorbachev Judged by the Standards of a Law-Based Society, Constitutional Reform in the USSR, Implementation of International Human Rights Standards in the Lithuanian Legal System and the Problem of the Law-Based State, Rejection of Justice, What Kind of Court and Procuracy?, Enterprises on the Difficult Path to a Market Economy: Legal Aspects, Index