JUSTICE IN THE USSR:

An Interpretationtion of Soviet Law. Revised Edition, Enlarged. By Harold J. Berman '38. NewYork: Vintage Books, 1963, 450 pp. $2.45.

The present volume is not entirely new. It is a reprint, in paperback, of a study completed by Professor Berman more than a dozen years ago, graced by a few appropriate revisions and the addition of two new chapters dealing with legal reforms since Stalin. The book then does not distill Professor Berman's added wisdom regarding Soviet law acquired in no fewer than five visits to the USSR, including one full year of residence there, since the publication of the first edition in 1950 (Justice in Russia:

Like most executives, I didn't think I was wealthy enough to set up trusts for Janet and the children now. I knew I wasn't what they call a 'Man of Property' with extensive personal investments in stocks and bonds or real estate.

"Then my banker showed me their booklet, 'Financial Planning for Management Men,' and I realized my estate was potentially a sizeable one. When I added the value of my deferred benefits —group life insurance, pension andprofit sharing arrangements - to the value of our house, cash, securities, and ordinary life insurance, the total came close to three hundred thousand dollars. "The booklet made the point that my kind of plan, with everything to my wife, not only would subject my estate to maximum taxes, but would also create investment and administrative headaches for Janet.

"My attorney, working with one of the Bank's trust officers, set up a Pilot Trust into which all my deferred benefits and my ordinary life insurance would go. Our home, cash in bank and personal effects go directly to my wife, but all the rest flows into the Pilot Trust where it is split into marital and nonmarital trusts to take advantage of favorable provisions in the tax laws. The big advantages of a Pilot Trust are that it coordinates estate and investment planning for my family, puts all my assets under one roof, and reduces taxes and estate expenses. The potential tax savings would be as high as thirty-six thousand dollars. As my estate

grows, the savings could be a lot more! And I can change my Pilot Trust at any time.

"But what's really reassuring is that Janet and the children would enjoy the benefits of competent investment service under uniform management and, at the same time, have considerate attention given to their changing financial needs by The Bank of New York."

The Bank of New York would be pleased to address any group of corporate executives interested in this idea. Also you may wish to receive a new, 24-page booklet which fully analyzes today's Management Man's financial and estate problems and offers a complete explanation of what a Pilot Trust is, how it is set up and what it can achieve. It also includes a comprehensive Financial Inventory Form. Just write to Financial Planning, Dept. F, The Bank of New York, 48 Wall Street, New York, New York 10015. © 1963

An Interpretation of Soviet Law; Harvard University Press). It is a reaffirmation of old insights rather than a projection of new ones. To those familiar with Professor Berman's work and awaiting fresh vistas on Soviet law, the book may for this reason be disappointing.

To others it need not be so. Approached for the first time, Professor Berman's book will still stimulate the excitement - and occasionally controversy - concerning the reality or non-reality of "law" in Russia inspired by the original edition. The study is distinctive for two reasons: first, because Professor Berman takes Soviet law seriously and insists that others do. He is not satisfied with easy assumptions that there can be no law in Russia because totalitarian systems are lawless; if a legal system exists with courts, law codes, professional judges, juridical institutes, and other paraphernalia of justice — it is worth our trouble to inspect it.

The second distinctive feature of Professor Berman's work is his concept of Soviet law as "parental," or educational; "the educational role of law," he writes (p. 283), "has from the beginning been made central to the concept of justice itself." The thesis has influenced later students of Soviet law and remains as much as any other notion Professor Berman's restless mind has advanced his special hallmark.

The original edition, it is worth noting as an historical footnote, was one of the earliest studies of the Russian Research Center at Harvard (the third of 48 to date); after all the intervening years, it remains one of two or three authoritative interpretations of Soviet law. It has thus earned a place as a classic among the multitude of post-war studies of the USSR. It richly deserves reprinting at this juncture, even without the revisions Professor Berman has provided.

Professor of Government

"My Estate Plan provided 'Everything to my wite,' too...until I learned about a Pilot trust"