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Damsa on Lustration & Transitions in Central Eastern Europe

By Lawrence Solum

Liviu Damsa (University of Warwick - School of Law) has posted Lustration and Post-Communist Closure in Central Eastern Europe on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This paper discusses the various dimensions of Central Eastern Europe closure with the communist past, and then assesses the impact of transitional justice measures in the closure with communism. Special attention is paid to the so called ?lustration?, which in the view of the author performs important functions in transitions to democratic regimes, related to the reconstruction of a moral and rational community, and to the closure with the communist past. The chapter shows that the failures and controversies surrounding ?lustration? were due to its radical potential of reconstruction of a moral-rational democratic community, and also to specific socio-political factors of the post-communist CEE. What specific features of CEE post-communist transitions and of lustration conducted to the recurrence of debates related to the communist past is a question that has not been addressed heretofore, despite a fairly well-developed literature on post-communist administrative justice.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on July 09, 2010 (boomark / email).