Title: Lustration (administrative justice) and closure in post-communist East Central Europe

Authors: Liviu Damsa

Addresses: University of Warwick, School of Law, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK

Abstract: This article discusses the various dimensions of East Central Europe's 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 article 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 ECE. What specific features of ECE 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.

Keywords: CEE; Central Europe; Eastern Europe; transitional justice; administrative justice; closure; post-communist countries; lustration; communism; politics; political ideologies; ECE; East-Central Europe; Middle Europe; Median Europe; democratic regimes; democracy; moral communities; rational communities; community reconstruction; socio-political factors; public law; public policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLAP.2011.044991

International Journal of Public Law and Policy, 2011 Vol.1 No.4, pp.335 - 375

Published online: 31 Mar 2015 *

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