Book Reviews: MARJORIE S. ZATZ, Producing Legality: Law and Socialism in Cuba. New York/ London: Routledge, 1994, 237 pp
| Author | Alan Norrie |
| Published date | 01 September 1996 |
| Date | 01 September 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/096466399600500311 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
437
Delgado,
R.
(1995)
Critical
Race
Theory:
The
Cutting
Edge.
New
York:
New
York
University
Press.
Wing,
A.
(1996)
Critical
Race-Feminism.
New
York:
New
York
University
Press.
MARGARET
E.
MONTOYA
School
of
Law,
University
of New
Mexico,
USA
MARJORIE
S.
ZATZ,
Producing
Legality:
Law
and
Socialism
in
Cuba.
New
York/
London:
Routledge,
1994, 237
pp.
In
these
days
of
increased
aggression,
a
measured
analysis
of
’socialist
legality’
in
Cuba
is
welcome.
Marjorie
Zatz
depicts
Cuban
law
as
the
product
of
conscientious
men
and
women
working
in
difficult
material
circumstances
to
promote
a
system
which
aims
to
meet
the
needs
of
its
people,
and
which
has
produced
health
and
education
statis-
tics
that
outstrip
many
’developed’
countries.
It
is
also
a
system
which
over
the
past
20
years
has
increasingly
submitted
itself
to
legal
regulation.
It
is
the
nature
of
this
development
that
preoccupies
Zatz.
The
book
is
divided
into
three
main
sections:
context
and
theoretical
horizons;
processes
of
law
reform
and
the
creation
of
lawyers
(’Strategies
for
Producing
Legality’);
and
legal
practice
in
two
areas,
with
emphasis
on
the
role
of
lay
actors
(’The
Daily
Production
and
Reproduction
of
Legality’).
I
discuss
the
theoretical
section
after
considering
the
empirical
material
in
the
second
and
third
sections.
The
book’s
bulk
is
devoted,
in
the
second
section,
to
the
ways
legality
is
produced
by
academics
and
administrators.
Three
chapters
discuss
law
creation,
the
nature
of
legal
education
and
the
importation
of
comparative
law.
In
the
first
of
these
chapters,
Zatz
traces
the
evolution
of
law
in
the
criminal
and
family
codes.
The
former
occupies
most
of
her
attention,
and
she
provides
a
detailed
account
of
the
ways
in
which
crim-
inal law
and
justice
have
been
reformed
in
a
progressive
direction,
one
which
pays
more
attention
to
the
rights
of
the
suspect
and
stresses
less
harsh
forms
of
penal
inter-
vention.
Cuba
experiences
a
relatively
low
crime
rate
compared,
for
example,
to
the
United
States,
and
this
has
led
to
a
move
away
from
seeing
law
as
a
weapon
for
the
defence
of
the
state,
and
to
a
greater
emphasis
on
education
and
resocialization.
There
is
an
increased
emphasis
on
due
process
through
the
expanded
role
of
the
prosecutor
and
a
shift
to
a
more
adversarial
system.
Emphasis
is
placed
on
the
highly
consultative
character
of the
process
of
law
reform.
Zatz
stresses
the
structurally
conflictual
process
out
of
which
laws
develop,
law
creation
being
’a
strategy
employed
by
the
state
for
resolving
interorganisational
conflicts
and
dilemmas’
(p.
64).
From
law
creation,
Zatz
moves
to
the
creation
of
lawyers,
charting
the
development
of
a
postrevolutionary
legal
profession.
This
dates
from
the
1970s
when
the
process
of
’institutionalisation’
led
to
the
rehabilitation
of
law
and
lawyers.
She
then
moves
on
to
examine
the
strong
comparative
dimension
in
the
Cuban
legal
approach.
Legal
aca-
demics
devote
considerable
time
to
the
analysis
of
other
legal
systems,
to
see
what
they
might
transplant.
While
these
chapters
are
rather
slow,
they
do
convey
a
sense
of
the
seriousness
of
the
academic
effort
to
produce
lawyers
and
a
high
quality
input
into
law
reform
processes.
In
the
third
main
section,
Zatz
discusses
the
daily
reproduction
of
law,
particularly
by
those
with
no
formal
training.
Lay
judges
play a
continuing
role
in
criminal
courts
and
workplace
tribunals
in
what
appears
a
more
legalistic
system
since
the
abolition
of
popular
tribunals
in
the
1970s.
She
insists
on
the
non-coopted
quality
of
such
judges,
who
are
not
afraid
to
oppose
the
views
of
professionals
and
who
act
as
’bidirectional
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