"A couple of years ago," as Mr. Buckley sets the stage, "a small group of American lawyers headed by Telford Taylor hit on the idea of attempting to help 20 imprisoned Russians-18 Jews, 2 gentiles-strictly within the framework of Soviet law." On paper, their chances looked good: after all, "the much-heralded constitution of 1936 probably lists more human rights than any constitution in the world," and the Procurator General of the Soviet Union, Roman Rudenko, had been a colleague of Mr. Taylor's at Nuremberg. Even so, the lawyers' initiative failed, and Mr. Taylor explains why in this serious discussion, rich in detail. TT: "In order to achieve heavier penalties and strike more fear into others who would want to emigrate the law is simply distorted and set aside .... A person who wants to emigrate knows that if he gets in trouble with the law it's all up-conviction is certain; guarantees are going to be set aside. This is very much more of a threat to other [potential emigrants] than the possibility of a fair trial."