Established in 1925, the Soviet Supreme Court is defined as constituted by the democratic principle of election and guided in its workings by strict legality in general, and by the laws of the USSR and the union republics in particular. It exercises functions of legal supervision over the lower courts and hands down precedent-setting judicial decisions, which are called legal explanations and rulings. USSR Supreme Court justices are assisted in preparing their judicial decisions by a body of legal scholars called the Scholarly Consultative Council of the USSR Supreme Court: This body consists mainly of law school professors, its members serve without pay and specialize in different branches of the law. USSR Supreme court justices enjoy a right referred to as legislative initiative, which enables them to actually enact laws. For example, they recently passed a victim compensation law. They also send representations to the USSR Supreme Soviet Residium. Judicial decisions cited in this article concern such matters as rights of authorship, premeditated murder, substance abuse, contract law, theft of socialist property, and application of the penalty called dispatch to a disciplinary battalion. Six references to Russian texts are listed.