This was the message the U.S. Department of Justice carried to Soviet counterparts in the fall of 1989 at a dialog in the Soviet Union at the invitation of the Soviet Ministry of Justice. The concept of the rule of law whereby all citizens, including political leaders as well as common citizens, must comply with a democratically derived body of law is new to the Soviet Union. Soviet history has been dominated by customary and imperial law, whereby persons of power have manipulated and used the law for their own political ends. This was as true under the Communist Party as under the czars. The rule of law requires an independent judiciary that administers justice in strict adherence to stated law and in accordance with specified principles of due process. Since such a system is not part of the legal cultural concepts of the Soviet Union, reform must involve profound ideological change. There is precedent for such historical reform in the cases of West Germany and Japan after World War II. Both countries shifted from totalitarian structures to democratic systems.