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This paper explores how the educational function of law assumed a distinctive form of “legal nurturing” in the Soviet state. Even though, originally, socialist education was meant to give the working classes more autonomy, it soon became to be used as a tool of control aimed to shape each citizen into a “New Soviet Man”. Law, both in theory and practice, was recognized as one of the tools for instilling these new values and habits, and the legislature, the courts, and the civic community were put at the forefront of this task. The essay concludes with a brief summary of how legal nurturing facilitated both social progress and political terror and a rumination on the legacy of Soviet legal nurturing in Russia.

This article pursues a comprehensive and critical analysis of Anchugov and Gladkov v Russia – a recent Russian Constitutional Court (RCC) decision in which Russia has declared a European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment impossible to implement for the first time. I intend to move beyond the usual narratives of Russia showing disregard for international human rights institutions and focus, instead, on the RCC’s decision as a form of constitutional brake. Compared to similar legal devices deployed in Germany and the United Kingdom (UK), the RCC’s response seems less measured and thus less legitimate. Despite this it will be shown that the RCC was facing a unique constitutional conundrum in which such a radical response was understandable.

This paper examines Hans Kelsen’s Communist Theory of Law in the context of his general critique of natural law theories. Kelsen argues that since there is no such thing as objectively determined natural law, a theory that attempts to use it to establish constraints on positive law is at risk of automatically justifying the latter. Kelsen deploys this ‘Pandora’s Box Objection’ in his characterization of the Communist theory of law as the ‘handmaiden’ of the Soviet government that conserved, rather than challenged, oppressive policies. The Objection is limited in scope. Firstly, it applies only to ‘forward-looking’ Communist theories of law that justify transitional socialist legal arrangements rather than seek to abolish the legal form as a whole. Secondly, it does not eliminate the Rule of Law constraints that are independent from natural law fetters - hence the state does not have a ‘blank cheque’ to introduce any positive law.

This article draws a parallel between Joseph Raz’s ‘society of angels’ thought experiment and St. Thomas Aquinas’s description of society under the state of innocence in Summa Theologica (Part I, Q95, A4). Both Raz and Aquinas highlight practical indispensability of law not just for control but coordination, however, only Aquinas connects the nature of law properly so called to its orientation towards the common good. This explains why a converse ‘society of demons’ would be treated differently by Raz and Aquinas, only the former recognizing law in such a society as indistinguishable from the law of angels. Still, differences notwithstanding, both perspectives help us explore the idea of legality in atypical settings, such as Utopian societies, wicked regimes, extraordinary measures, and international law. The article ends with a call for further exploration of commonalities and not just differences between legal positivism and natural law.

Background: Exposure to ambient air pollution is a risk factor for morbidity and mortality from lung and heart disease. Research Question: Does short term exposure to ambient air pollution concentration influence COVID-19 related mortality? Study Design and Methodology: Using time series analyses we tested the association between daily changes in air pollution measured by stationary monitors in and around Santiago, Chile and deaths from laboratory confirmed or suspected COVID-19 between March 16 and August 31, 2020. Results were adjusted for temporal trends, temperature and humidity, and stratified by age and sex. Results: There were 10,069 COVID-19 related deaths of which 7,659 were laboratory confirmed. For an unlagged interquartile range (IQR) increase in CO, NO2 and PM2.5 the relative mortality risk (RR) estimates (95% CI) were 1.058 (1.031, 1.085), 1.063 (1.029, 1.098) and 1.061 (1.036, 1.085), respectively. There were no significant differences in RR by sex, but RR generally increased with age. In those at least 85 years old, an IQR increase in NO2 was associated with a 12.7% (95% CI 4.2, 22.2) increase in daily mortality. Interpretation: This study provides evidence that daily increases in air pollution increase the risk of dying from COVID-19, especially in the elderly. Funding Statement: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors Declaration of Interests: All authors have no competing financial interests. Ethics Approval Statement: The data were collected for administrative purposes, and were provided with no personal identifiers; hence, the present study was exempt from review by the Health Canada Research Ethics Board.

This essay examines the Soviet role in the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drawing distinctions between the Soviet and the Western models of fundamental rights up to 1948, with the Soviet context put into perspective via a comprehensive historical review of its origins and development. Furthermore, the supposed characteristics of the Soviet concept of fundamental rights are applied to the 1948 debate, with Soviet speeches and proposals thoroughly examined from that standpoint. It is argued that the disagreement displayed between both sides of the negotiation stemmed from the Soviet understanding of human rights being more collectivist and focused on economic and social rights. Hence, the essay intends to challenge the common perception of the USSR as only being hostile to human rights and opens a conversation about firstly fundamental, and then human rights as diplomatic devices.