children, etc.). Things intended for the personal use of one of the spouses remain undivided.

The spouses may enter into all the relations that the law permits in what concerns prop-erty. But agreements between spouses aiming at diminishing the property rights of the wife or of the husband are null and not binding, whether with respect to a third party or with respect to the two spouses, who have the right at any time to refuse to carry them out.

Women (married or unmarried) enjoy in the Soviet Union full legal capacity and complete power of disposition. Under Article 4 of the Civil Code, civil capacity is granted to all citizens whose rights the courts have not restricted. "Neither sex nor race nor nationality nor religion nor origin has any effect upon civil capacity." And any transaction that entails for a woman any restrictions upon her civil capac-ity or her power of disposition is deemed void. A woman can, exactly as a man can, defend her rights before the courts.

The laws concerning marriage, family, and guardianship in the Russian Soviet Federative Republic (like the laws in the other federal republics) provide for the duty of giving material support to a spouse incapable of work, since the duties and rights of husband and wife are identical in this case. On the other hand, Soviet law contains no condition relating to divorce or remarriage of a kind that would narrow woman's rights and place her in a worse position than man's.

Marriage may be dissolved by divorce through the courts, upon the petition of one of the spouses or of both. The judicial bodies ascertain the reasons for the petition for divorce and,

if no result is reached in reconciling the spouses, decide whether the petitioner's reasons are sufficient for dissolving the marriage. If the necessity of such a dissolution is affirmed, the court fixes the parents' shares in the upbringing of the children. In case of divorce the children remain, as a general rule, with the mother; for Soviet law considers the mother the lawful

representative and defender of the children's interests.

And after the marriage has been dissolved, each spouse may contract a new marriage with equal rights.

Soviet legislation secures all the conditions for the unity of the Soviet family.