epoch of the proletarian dictatorship, this demand assumes a no less impracticable and reactionary complexion than the demand for universal suffrage or the demand for the general arming of the people. When the proletariat is in power, it cannot permit the enemies of its class to become judges. The workers could hardly accept the representatives of capital or of the landed interest as administrators of the new laws which are intended to overthrow the capitalist regime! In fine, in the long succession of civil and criminal affairs, the proceedings of the courts must be conducted in the spirit of the new socialist society which is in course of construction.
For these reasons the Soviet Power did not merely destroy all the old machinery of justice which, while serving capital, hypocritically proclaimed itself to be the voice of the people. It went farther, and constituted new courts, making no attempt to conceal their class character. In the old law-courts, the class minority of exploiters passed judgment upon the working majority. The law-courts of the proletarian dictatorship are places where the working majority passes judgment upon the exploiting minority. They are specially constructed for this purpose. The judges are elected by the workers alone. The judges are elected solely from among the workers. For the exploiters the only right that remains is the right of being judged.
72. Unified popular Law-courts.
In bourgeois society the administration of justice is an exceedingly cumbrous affair. Bourgeois jurists proudly declare that, thanks to the gradation of lower courts, higher courts, courts of appeal, and so on, absolute justice is ensured, and the number of miscarriages of justice reduced to a minimum. In actual fact, in the past and to-day, the working of this graded series of law-courts has been and is to the unfailing advantage of the possessing classes. Well-to-do persons, being able to command the services of highly paid lawyers, can carry a case from court