Beyond the Courtroom
Why the Law Does Not Function the Way It Should
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The collapse of the Soviet Union created a legal vacuum in Russia. Violence-prone enterprises competed with the state to protect newly created property. Sovereign duties of state such as drafting and implementing laws were commercialised and replaced by common law and threat of violence. Only at the end of the 1990s did the judiciary regain any meaning. However, that is less the expression of a strengthening of rule of law than the fact that the court system now serves as a means for a new redistribution of property. The Yukos case is an illustration of this. An independent judiciary capable of functioning has yet to develop in Russia.
(Osteuropa 10/2005, pp. 75–84)