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The East German Social Courts: Law and Popular Justice in a Marxist-Leninist Society | 
| Author: Peter W. Sperlich
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $170.00
Buy New: $119.48
You Save: $50.52 (30%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 2965230
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 360
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0275975649
Dewey Decimal Number: 347.43102
EAN: 9780275975647
ASIN: 0275975649
Publication Date: March 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
An interesting read for professional jurists, court administrators, and scholars concerned with lay adjudication or East German legal institutions, this book provides an account of the social courts of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Although the East German system was corrupt and oppressive, the social courts were an innovative and successful experiment. Rooted in Marxist-Leninst legal doctrine, these courts handled thousands of minor civil disputes and petty criminal offenses each year. The judges and jurists who worked at these courts were lay people and did not receive any pay for their services. This book delves into the history of the social courts and their success with both the government and the citizens of East Germany. It also presents the courts as an instructive example of an inexpensive, speedy, and popular legal institution that should be studied by today's court systems. The social courts of the GDR had a wide range of primary and auxiliary functions. Some of these functions were to relieve the state courts of the need to deal with a variety or minor civil and criminal cases, give ordinary citizens an important role to play in the administration of justice, raise the citizens' legal knowledge and consciousness, and tie citizens more closely to the regime through participatory acts. Offering both commendations and criticisms of the social courts, this book seeks to provide a record of the structures, functions, interactions, decisions, and personnel of the social courts, along with a comparative analysis to other legal systems, such as those of the United States of America.
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| Customer Reviews:
Completing the Picture of East Germany November 18, 2007
This is the third volume of Sperlich's East German trilogy. It is a well-written, unique contribution to our knowledge about the former country of East Germany and about socialist law. The book consist of two major parts: a general description of the East German legal system, and a close examination of one of its outstanding features: the "social courts." As the author makes clear, whereas the country's political system was substantially corrupt and oppressive, and whereas the legal system was "lawless" rather than "lawful," the social courts stand out as an innovative and largely successful experiment of lay participation in the administration of justice.
The book starts with a revealing portrayal of the difficulties encountered in doing legal and social science research in East Germany. The regime was immensely suspicious of Western researchers, clearly generalizing to Western science its own practices of "partisan science" and the tight political control of scholars. Field research and observations of actual court proceedings were very difficult, indeed, almost impossible. It is interesting to learn what steps the author took to at least partially circumvent the controls and constraints.
About the legal system in general, it can be said that the courts functioned in a fairly neutral (nonpartisan) fashion when the case at hand did not touch on state or party interests. When such interest were at stake, however, party directives to the judges were common. Since it could not be predicted with any certainty what cases might acquire official interest, and since practically any and all cases could fall into this category, the system as such clearly could not be regarded as "lawful" (Rechtsstaat). In addition to the dissection of the partisan nature of socialist justice, the book also includes a description of the basic court structure and the judicial personnel of East Germany. This is extremely useful, given that there is available practically no other writing on the East German legal system and law.
The second part of the book begins with a comparative analysis of lay adjudication in various socialist systems. The structure of the relevant institutions (social courts, comrades courts, people's arbitration committees, etc.) is noted, as well as their Leninist theoretical underpinnings. The book also explains the difference of the two types of East German social courts: the dispute commissions (workplace based) and the arbitration commissions (residence based). In addition, the book traces the historical development of these two lay institutions.
Sperlich furnishes detailed descriptions and statistics regarding the elections and terms of services of the lay adjudicators (judges) of the social courts, the assistance they received to carry out their duties (which was extensive), the work load of the social courts (which was heavy), the various responsibilities of the social court judges (which were extensive), and the rewards which the judges received (which were minor). The work of the judges was unpaid and performed outside of regular working hours. Except for retirees, each judge, thus, discharged his/her judicial duties in addition to his/her regular work. Terms of office were four or five years. Re-elections were frequent. The judges of the dispute commissions were nominated by the labor union of the firm and elected by the fellow workers. The judges of the arbitration commissions were nominated by political functionaries and elected by territorial popular assemblies.
The wide range of primary and secondary functions of the social courts is nothing short of astounding. The primary functions were the settlement of minor civil disputes and petty criminal offenses. The social courts handled thousands of these each year. All parties to a social court case had standing to appeal the decision to the local district court. However, there were few appeals. Even fewer were successful. There was, however, great emphasis on the "uniform application of socialist law." East Germany no more desired "runaway social courts" than we desire "runaway juries."
The secondary functions were greatly varied and exceptionally time-consuming. They included the legal education of the citizens (particularly of youth), legal consultations (generally requiring regular office hours), discovery of incipient disputes and their informal resolution, reintegration of law-breakers who served their terms of imprisonment, cooperation with various political organizations (especially the National Front), attending conferences to exchange experiences, attending educational meetings and seminars, and reporting about their work to their electors.
In general, Sperlich judges the East German social courts to have been highly successful institutions. Their work was appreciated at the popular as well as at the leadership level. An indication of the former was gathered by way of the author's citizen interviews. The latter manifested itself in successive jurisdictional expansions and in increases of public honors awarded to the judges.
The book is a peerless contribution to our general understanding of socialist law and the administration of justice in socialist systems. In addition it presents detailed information about a set of legal institutions (the East German social courts) which are practically unknown the West. But, as the author points out, they should not remain unknown. Given the often unmanageable case loads of our courts, there is a strong argument to be made for the expansion of lay adjudication. In this respect, the experience of the social courts can provide valuable lessons.
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