Sure but the “legalistic theory of progress” does have some merits. The Helsinki Declarations of 1975 are the most famous example. The Soviet Union was cornered into signing a document guaranteeing a bunch of fundamental freedoms that it obviously had no intention of honoring. In the 1980s the document was used again and again as a diplomatic stick to expose Moscow’s hypocrisy, and seems to have had a role in the Gorbachev reforms that led to the end of the USSR.
Sure but the “legalistic theory of progress” does have some merits. The Helsinki Declarations of 1975 are the most famous example. The Soviet Union was cornered into signing a document guaranteeing a bunch of fundamental freedoms that it obviously had no intention of honoring. In the 1980s the document was used again and again as a diplomatic stick to expose Moscow’s hypocrisy, and seems to have had a role in the Gorbachev reforms that led to the end of the USSR.