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The Impact of the Scientific and Technical Revolution Upon Soviet FINAL REPORT T O NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR SOVIETAND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARC H TITLE : THE IMPACT OF THE SCIENTIFI C AND TECHNICAL REVOLUTIO N UPON SOVIET AND EAS T EUROPEAN LAW AUTHOR : PETER MAGGS et al . CONTRACTOR : The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois , Urbana, Illinoi s PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR : Peter Magg s COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER : 621-1 1 The work leading to this report was supported in whole or i n part from funds provided by the National Council for Sovie t and East European Research . TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction : The Impact of the Scientific and Technica l Revolution Upon Soviet and East European Law (Peter B . Maggs) i i Highlights (Summaries) of Research Report s xx i Socialist Legal Doctrine in Transition : The Rise of the Regulatory Role of Law (Robert Sharlet) ..... 1 Constitutional Rights in the Era of Scientific and Technica l Revolution (Stanislaw Pomorski) 3 4 The Scientific and Technical Revolution and Legal Problem s of Vocational Training of Workers in the USSR (Yur i Luryi ) 6 2 Integration and Soviet Research and Development : Problem s of Coordinating the Left Hand with the Right (Gordo n Smith) 11 2 Legal Aspects of the Computerization of Management System s in the USSR and Eastern Europe (Peter B . Maggs) 14 2 Political and Legal Aspects of the Development and Use o f Nuclear Power in the USSR and Eastern Europe (Donal d D . Barry) 17 6 Glimpses of the Scientific-Technical Revolution in Sovie t Environmental Law (Zigurds L . Zile) 21 3 Soviet Currency Credits (Loans) to Eastern Europe (Georg e Ginsburgs) 25 5 The "Scientific and Technical Revolution" and the Worl d Economy : Organizational and Legal Aspects of East - West Economic Relations (Erik P . Hoffmann and Robbi n F . Laird) 305 INTRODUCTION : THE IMPACT OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL REVOLUTION UPON SOVIE T AND EAST EUROPEAN LAW Peter B . Magg s College of Law University of Illinoi s at Urbana-Champaign iii The present report contains the results of the secon d year of a two-year study of law and the scientific and tech - nical revolution in Eastern Europe . Gordon Smith summa- rized the results of the first year's work as follows : The success in realizing the fruit s of the STR will depend in large measure o n the ability of socialist societies t o master it . To date, the Soviet and Eas t European leadership has, for the mos t part, chosen to pursue moderate or con- servative means of harnessing the scien- tific and technical revolution . Legal norms reflect this orientation and wil l help to shape it in the immediate future , forming the basis upon which critica l policy choices will be made . 1 The focus of the first year's study was upon th e ways in which law was used to further and control the STR . 2 The papers contained in this second report are focuse d upon the ways in which the scientific and technical revo- lution has affected legal and political institutions . A definition by Soviet Academician P .N . Fedoseev emphasise s the impact of the STR : 3 The STR is basically the radical quali- tative reorganization of the productiv e forces as a result of the transformation -iv - of science into a key factor in the development of social production . Increasingly eliminating manual labo r by utilizing the forces of nature i n technology, and replacing man's direc t participation in the production proces s by the functioning of his materialize d knowledge, the STR radically change s the entire structure and components o f the productive forces, the conditions , nature, and content of labor . While embodying the growing integration o f science, technology, and production, th e STR at the same time influences al l aspects of life in present-day society , including industrial management, educa- tion, everyday life, culture, the psychol- ogy of people, the relationship betwee n nature and society . The impact of the STR is also discussed by the leadin g Soviet legal philosopher, Professor R .O . Khalfina in th e opening chapter of a book on Socialist Law and the Scientific and Technical Revolution . 4 She writes : The scientific and technical revolu - tion promises not only the greates t blessings for the development of human -L/ - society . Its processes also may be connected with a serious threat to th e conditions of existence . The use of the achievements of the scientific - technical revolution requires a dee p and carefully considered system o f measures for preservation of the envi- ronment and of the life and health o f people . .. The scientific-technical revolu- tion influences not only technology an d the economy . The development of mas s information media, the profusion of in - formation, new forms of satisfyin g cultural needs -- all this has a signifi- cant effect on the formation of personality . There are new demands in modern condition s upon man -- the employee in production . A higher level of preparation is neces- sary both for workers in production an d for workers in the administrativ e apparatus . Under the conditions of scientific - technical revolution, the tasks o f administration of society change signifi- cantly . .. The studies which follow analyse in detail how th e legal systems of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe hav e reacted to the problems created by the ongoing scientifi c and technical revolution . Four main categories of prob- lems appear repeatedly in these studies . The first i s the inadequacy of information about the economy . The second is a conflict between traditional ideology an d the needs of scientific and technical development . The third is rising consumer expectations . The fourth i s the increasing ineffectiveness of methods of control o f the public . In order to meet these problems the lega l system has had to change, but in some cases the change s necessitated by one problem have made other problem s worse . American policy makers may expect to have to dea l with Warsaw Pact countries which will be making stead y technological advances, but whose legal and politica l systems will increasingly be changed by these advances . INADEQUACY OF INFORMATION Advances in science and technology have created a n ever greater need for information . Institutional change s resulting from attempts to meet this need are describe d in a number of the studies . Yuri Luryi describes a t length legal measures taken to upgrade the quality o f technical training for workers and to encourage worker s to participate in this training . Gordon Smith discusse s the creation of regional centers for the creation an d transfer of scientific information because of the _ vii _ inadequacy of national centers . Peter Maggs discusse s the crash program for the development of an institution - al structure capable of support of a nationwide computer- ized information network . Donald Barry discusses th e systems by which technical information on nuclear powe r plant design is disseminated . Eric Hoffman discusse s the restructuring of foreign trade institutions and th e broadening of the circles with access to information o n foreign trade transactions . During the original five year plans, the Sovie t Union managed to overtake the United States in heav y industrial production by increasing input of manpower , raw materials, and capital equipment to a relativel y stable legal and institutional structure . However it has become apparent that the increase of informatio n flow needed to compete with the United States in scienc e and technology cannot be achieved without major institu- tional changes . The results of these changes may b e significant shifts in the locations of power centers i n the societies of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe . Gordon Smith discusses the improvement of regional in - formation flow by the creation of territorial-productio n complexes, regional interbranch science centers, and othe r regional integrative forms . He points out that one resul t may be to strengthen the power of regional Party commit - tees at the expense of both central ministries and local -viii - enterprise . He also points to the decentralization o f scientific and technical personnel, with the rate o f growth of the numbers of such personnel being muc h greater in the provinces than in the major cities o f European Russia . He contrasts the de facto increase i n in the importance of regional organizations with th e legal system which still largely reflects the forma l monopoly of power at the ministerial level . The nex t stage could be legal recognition of this regionaliza- tion . This would mark a return to something lik e Nikita Khrushchev's system of regional economic councils . However it could succeed where Khrushchev's failed . The failure of Khrushchev's experiment can be linked both t o the political opposition generated by the suddenness o f the transfer of power away from the central ministries , to the inadequacy of the economic base in many regions , the insufficiency of managerial and scientific talen t in the provinces, and the irrationality of the drawin g of regional boundaries . The current more evolutionar y approach may overcome all these problems . Regional integration is also reflected in the com- puterization of management information systems reporte d by Peter Maggs . Given the uneven level of technica l development of the various parts of the Soviet Union an d the total inadequacy of the electronic data transmissio n system for the creation of computerized informatio n systems on a country-wide scale, it is not surprising -iX - that the greatest successes have been at the regiona l level .
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