The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe

The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe PDF

Author: Herman Schwartz

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0226741966

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In the former Eastern Bloc countries, one of the most difficult and important aspects of the transition to democracy has been the establishment of constitutional justice and the rule of law. Herman Schwartz's wide-ranging book, backed with rich historical detail and a massive array of research, is the first to chronicle and analyze the rise and troubles of constitutional courts in this changing region. "Those who are interested in understanding the behavior of constitutional courts in transitional regimes cannot afford to ignore this important book. . . . [It] is fecund with hypotheses of interest to political scientists, and we are indebted to Professor Schwartz for his comprehensive analysis."—James L. Gibson, Law and Politics Book Review

The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe

The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe PDF

Author: Herman Schwartz

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2000-07-01

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9780226741956

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In the former Eastern Bloc countries, one of the most difficult and important aspects of the transition to democracy has been the establishment of constitutional justice and the rule of law. Herman Schwartz's wide-ranging book, backed with rich historical detail and a massive array of research, is the first to chronicle and analyze the rise and troubles of constitutional courts in this changing region. "Those who are interested in understanding the behavior of constitutional courts in transitional regimes cannot afford to ignore this important book. . . . [It] is fecund with hypotheses of interest to political scientists, and we are indebted to Professor Schwartz for his comprehensive analysis."—James L. Gibson, Law and Politics Book Review

Constitutional Justice, East and West

Constitutional Justice, East and West PDF

Author: Wojciech Sadurski

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2002-12-31

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 9789041118837

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How can the power of constitutional judges to overturn parliamentary choices on the basis of their own reading of the constitution, be reconciled with fundamental democratic principles which assign the supreme role in the political system to parliaments? This time-honoured question acquired a new significance when the post-commumst countries of Central and Eastern Europe, without exception, adopted constitutional models in which constitutional courts play a very significant role, at least in theory. Can we learn something about the relationship between democracy and constitutionalism in general, from the meteoric rise of constitutional tribunals in the post-communist countries? Can the discussions and controversies relating to constitutional review which have been going on for decades in more established democracies illuminate the sources of the strength of constitutional courts in Central and Eastern Europe? These questions lie at the center of this book, which focuses on the question of constitutional review in postcommunist states, from a theoretical and comparative perspective. The chapters contained in the book outline the conceptual framework for analyzing the sources, the role and the legitimacy of constitutional justice in a system of political democracy. From this perspective, it assesses the experience of constitutional justice in the West (where the model originated) and in Central and Eastern Europe, where the model has been implanted after the fail of Communism.

Rights Before Courts

Rights Before Courts PDF

Author: Wojciech Sadurski

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2005-12-05

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 140203007X

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Challenging the conventional wisdom that constitutional courts are the best device that democratic systems have for the protection of individual rights, Wojciech Sadurski examines the most recent wave of activist constitutional courts: those that have emerged after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to most other analysts and scholars he does not take for granted that they are a "force for the good", but rather subjects them to critical scrutiny.

The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe

The Struggle for Constitutional Justice in Post-Communist Europe PDF

Author: Herman Schwartz

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9780226741963

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In the former Eastern Bloc countries, one of the most difficult and important aspects of the transition to democracy has been the establishment of constitutional justice and the rule of law. Herman Schwartz's wide-ranging book, backed with rich historical detail and a massive array of research, is the first to chronicle and analyze the rise and troubles of constitutional courts in this changing region. "Those who are interested in understanding the behavior of constitutional courts in transitional regimes cannot afford to ignore this important book. . . . [It] is fecund with hypotheses of interest to political scientists, and we are indebted to Professor Schwartz for his comprehensive analysis."—James L. Gibson, Law and Politics Book Review

Importing the Law in Post-Communist Transitions

Importing the Law in Post-Communist Transitions PDF

Author: Catherine Dupré

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2003-03-14

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1847310451

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This book,one of the very first monographs on the Hungarian Constitutional Court available in English, is a unique study of the birth of a new legal system after the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. It shows that the genesis of the new legal order was determined by massive Western involvement and an unprecedented movement of export/import of law. Anchored in a detailed comparative study of German and Hungarian constitutional case law on human dignity, this book argues that law importation was a deliberate strategy carried out by the Hungarian Court in the early years of its operation. It explains how the circumstances of the transition and the background of the importers determined the choice of German case law as a model and how the Court used it to construct its own version of the right to human dignity. It highlights the Hungarian Court's instrumentalisation of imported law in order to lay the foundations of a new conception of fundamental rights. While focusing on the Hungarian experience, this book engages with international debates and provides an original theoretical framework for approaching the movement of law from the importers' perspective.

Legal Reform in Post-Communist Europe

Legal Reform in Post-Communist Europe PDF

Author: Frankowski

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

Published: 2023-10-20

Total Pages: 493

ISBN-13: 9004640223

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This book represents an effort to assess the unprecedented political, economic, and social reforms that have swept through Central and Eastern Europe in the five years since the collapse of Communism. The dismantling of the Warsaw Pact, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the Communist Party apparatus, and the various manifestations of the `nomenklatura' political control system have meant different things in different countries, but throughout the region we have witnessed a struggle to replace an authoritarian, one-party political system and a command economy with something resembling Western-style constitutional democracy and market economics. Accompanying this struggle have been attempts to transform the legal structure of these countries. It is no exaggeration to claim that lawyers, and particularly legal scholars, have played a central role in the struggle for reform in post-communist Europe. As conceived by its principal organizer and editor (Stanislaw Frankowski), this study gives these scholars an opportunity to express their perceptions of the success achieved to date and the work still remaining. A secondary goal is to expose a Western audience to the views and insights of legal scholars who have worked within the Central and Eastern European traditions. The four parts of this book reflect the principal areas in which legal reform seemed essential. First comes the reconstitutionalization of the societies in question, which means above all else the elimination of single-party politics and the notion of unity of powers. Then comes the creation of the legal institutions that would make possible a civil society under law. Then the institutions that moderate and control the uses of state power to discipline and punish persons that have transgressed the society's norms. Finally there is the question of how law reform had dealt with industrial democracy and the anticipated transformation of the workplace.

The Rule of Law after Communism

The Rule of Law after Communism PDF

Author: Martin Krygier

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-23

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1351540726

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This book is among the first books to consider post-communist Europe from the point of view of the rule of law. This book collects articles written by specialists on the rule of law in particular countries. Interdisciplinary in approach, this book reveals the multi-layered complexity of the development of the rule of law after communism.

Rethinking the Rule of Law after Communism

Rethinking the Rule of Law after Communism PDF

Author: Adam Czarnota

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 2005-09-10

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 6155053626

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In the original euphoria that attended the virtually simultaneous demise of so many dictatorships in the late 1980s and early 90s, there was a widespread belief that problems of 'transition' basically involved shedding a known past, and replacing it with an also-known future. This volume surveys and contributes to the prolific debates that occurred in the years between the collapse of communism and the enlargement of the European Union regarding the issues of constitutionalism, dealing with the past, and the rule of law in the post-communist world. Eminent scholars explore the issue of transitional justice, highlighting the distinct roles of legal and constitutional bodies in the post-transition period. The introduction seeks to frame the work as an intervention in the discussion of communism and transition-two stable and separate points-while emphasizing the instability of the post-transition moment.

Human Rights and Political Justice in Post-communist Eastern Europe

Human Rights and Political Justice in Post-communist Eastern Europe PDF

Author: Aurora Voiculescu

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13:

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Values, politics and law are inextricably intertwined in a communal effort to ensure respect for the human dignity of all the individuals in a society. This sentiment is often expressed, but rearely understood in the context of legal analysis. Proponents of sociolegal analysis often focus on particular actors or particular processes giving little attention to the communal aspects of justice. Because of this political entities in particular have been able to avoid responsibility for their past offenses to the human dignity of the communities who had invested them with the trust of government. Dr. Aurora Voiculescu's addresses this problem by examining the responsibility of collective political actors for human rights abuses. Instead of rehashing the developments within the sphere of individual and state responsibility, Dr. Voiculescu breaks new ground by considering communal needs for the responsibility of political collectives. At the centre of her work is the responsibility of the nomenklatura and what this means for societies over which they reigned. Drawing upon examples from the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe she analyzes the need for justice and ways in which this need