Equality of Aliens

in international economic relations, a legal status established through interstate agreement, according to which foreign legal and natural persons and foreign goods enjoy all the rights and privileges enjoyed by native legal and natural persons and native goods. In the era of imperialism, such equality typically deprives industry and trade in the economically weaker countries of protection against competition from foreign capital, thus making it easier for the large imperialist states to dominate the less developed countries.

The USSR and the other socialist countries oppose the extension of equality to aliens in international economic relations, preferring instead to adopt the principle of most-favored-nation. This does not exclude the acknowledgment of equality of aliens in instances in which negative consequences are not to be expected—for example, in navigation, especially in rendering aid at sea. The extension of equality to aliens is also embodied in the free access to Soviet courts enjoyed by foreign legal persons and citizens, and in the agreements on such subjects as reciprocal jurisdiction and common social security benefits concluded by the USSR with foreign socialist countries. Alien equality has been adopted in domestic Soviet law for a number of issues that fall under international private law; for example, the Basic Principles of Civil Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics of 1961 stipulate that foreigners in the USSR enjoy the same property rights as Soviet citizens. Equality of aliens is also contained in the Basic Principles of Civil Procedure of the USSR and the Union Republics and in a number of other legal enactments.