Book Reviews : Der Kampf um die Menschenrechtskonventionen der Vereinigten Nationen. By ROBERT LANGER. (Österreichische Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht, Neue Folge, Band IX, Heft 1. Wien: Springer-Verlag. 1958.)

• Author: George V. Wolfe
• Published date: 01 December 1959
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295901200437
• Date: 01 December 1959
• Subject Matter: Articles

1120

in

information;

he

includes,

for

example,

an

interesting

discussion

of

the

powers

of

the

village

soviet

in

agricultural

administration.

Indeed,

one

of

the

book’s

contributions

lies

in

its

treatment

of

local

governmental

and

party

controls

over

agriculture.

The

author

has

great

confidence

in

his

own

presentation;

he

states

&dquo;surely

the

evidence

offered

is

overwhelming

proof,&dquo;

and

&dquo;the

evidence

presented

here

overwhelmingly

indicates....&dquo;

A

less

critical

reader

might

agree.

This

reviewer,

however,

is

not

so

overwhelmingly

convinced

on

all

points.

Professor

Laird’s

facts

are

in

order,

but

he

tries

to

do

too

much

with

them.

For

example,

is

the

basic

weakness

of

Soviet

agriculture

simply

that

peasants

are

unenthusiastic

collectivists,

as

the

author

contends?

One

might

ask

Pro-

fessor

Laird

to

offer

more

proof

for

his

conclusions

that

the

most

important

political

fact

in

the

U.S.S.R.

today

is

that

the

leaders

seek

to

extend

with

every

means

at

their

command

their

control

over

Soviet

citizens;

or

that

control

over

agriculture,

at

least

today,

has

as

its

main

purpose

concentrat-

ing

the

power

of

the

regime.

Also,

his

presentation

would

have

been

clearer

had

he

defined

such

terms

as

&dquo;socializing

the

peasantry,&dquo;

and

&dquo;Bolshevik&dquo;

(presumably

referring

to

present-day

Communists).

These

criticisms

should

not

detract

from

the

value

of

the

book,

however.

For

a

great

deal

of

factual

data

and

for

many

rational

and

very

useful

analy-

ses

of

Soviet

collectivization,

this

work

is

a

welcome

contribution

to

the

liter-

ature

on

Soviet

studies.

San

Diego

State

College.

RICHARD

C.

GRIPP.

Der

Kampf

um

die

Menschenrechtskonventionen

der

Vereinigten

Nationen.

By

ROBERT

LANGER.

(Österreichische

Zeitschrift

für

öffentliches

Recht,

Neue

Folge,

Band

IX,

Heft

1.

Wien:

Springer-Verlag.

1958.)

The

issues

of

the

new

series

of

the

Oesterreichische

Zeitschri f

für

o f f ent-

liches

Recht

(Austrian

Journal

for

Public

Law),

a

journal

of

long

standing

prior

to

the

Nazi

interlude

that

was

revived

after

World

War

II,

are

pub-

lished

at

irregular

intervals,

depending

on

whether

or

not

the

editor

has

received

enough

material

worth

publishing.

The

leading

article

of

sixty-five

pages

in

the

first

issue

of

Volume

IX,

&dquo;Der

Kampf

um

die

Menschenrechtskonventionen

der

Vereinigten

Na-

tionen&dquo;

(The

Fight

for

the

United

Nations

Conventions

on

Human

Rights),

written

by

Robert

Langer,

a

one-time

Austrian

judge

now

teaching

political

science

at

Queens

College,

New

York,

is

of

interest

also

to

readers

in

this

country.

The

article

consists

of

three

parts.

The

first

gives

a

useful

synopsis

of

the

history

of

the

Human

Rights

Conventions.

The

second

contains

a

critical

discussion

of

the

United

States’

wavering

position

towards

the

Con-

ventions

-

first

our

government

strongly

supported

them

and

then,

with