OBSERVATIONS ON THE USE OF LAW BY RUSSIAN ENTERPRISES

Four specialists on the Russian economy analyze the extent to which en terprises use law and legal institutions in structuring exchange relat ions. The analysis uses the responses from questionnaires administered to sixty officials of fifteen enterprises in Moscow and Yekaterinburg during May-June 1996, supplemented by interviews in enterprises and w ithin arbitrazh courts. Their results indicate that enterprises make l ittle use of law and consider legal institutions to be ineffective. Ot her than ties based on historic business relations, there is an absenc e of social and economic networks that might function as substitutes f or law. The underdevelopment of institutions to foster impersonal rela tions between firms slows restructuring and growth.