‘‘At any moment the State is more the official guardian than the maker of
the law. Its chief task is to uphold the rule of law, and this implies that it is
itself also the subject of law, that it is bound in the system of legal values
which it maintence.’’
(See: R.M. Mac Iver: ‘‘The Modern State" p. 478)
Laski, while mainly accepting this rather negative approach, reminiscent
of 19th century Liberalism, would accord the State a much more positive role
in the interests not only of social order but also of socio-economic engineering
and progress.
561. Marxists, who saw in the State and its laws and all institutions
supporting an existing social order, the means of oppression and exploitation
of the mass of the people dreamt of the ‘‘withering away’’ of the State with its
claims to ‘Sovereignty’. But, the Russian Revolution was followed by the
vastly increased power of the State run for the benefit of the proletariat.
Nevertheless, the Constitution of the U.S.S.R. guarantees to citizens not
merely fundamental rights, including the right to work, but has a special
department of the Procurator General to enforce due observance of legality,
according to the law of the Constitution, by all the functionaries of State.
Article 104 of their Constitution reads:
"104. The Supreme Court of the U. S. S. R. is the highest judicial organ.
The Supreme Court of the U. S. S. R. is charged with the supervision of the
judicial activities of all the judicial organs of the U. S. S. R. and of the Union
Republic within the limits established by law."
(See : A denisov, M. Kirichenko, Soviet State-Law p. 400)
562. It is true that legality is enforced in the U. S. S. R. not merely
through the organs of the State but the vigilance of the Communist Party
which consists of selected persons keeping a watch on the policy of the State.
A. Y. Vyshinski, however, explained (See : Fundamental Tasks of Soviet Law
1938) that Soviet "law can no more be reduced simple to policy than cause
can be identified with effect". Strict observance of "Socialist Legality", under
the supremacy of the Constitution, is entrusted to the care of the State, with
its three organs, the Communist Party and the people of the U. S. S. R. (See :
"The Soviet Legal System" by M/s. John N. Howard and Issac Shapiro).
Although, Article 15 of the Constitution of the U. S. S. R. speaks of the
"Sovereignty" and "Sovereign Rights" of the Union Republics, yet, it is made
clear that these Republics function subject to the supremacy of the
Constitution. Hence, the supremacy of the Constitution is a principle
recognized by the Constitution of the U. S. S. R. also as operating above and
limiting the Sovereignties of the Socialist Republics.
563. Gierke made a wide survey and a penetrating analysis of juristic
thinking, upto the end of the 19th century, on sovereignty, derived, on the
one hand, from theories of the sovereignty of the Ruler, and, on the other,
from theories of popular sovereignty. He observed : (See: "Natural Law and
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