Professor Berman has taken an extraordinarily brilliant approach to reviewing Soviet law and legal systems. He sets forth the hypothesis that Soviet law's function is one of a parental role- teaching, the Soviet citizen, as would both a father and mother, the proper way to conduct one's private and public life in a socialist society. This book is a must read for any one with an interest in Soviet law and politics (and more importantly anyone interested in the the problem of from whence sovereignty derives in the soviet system).