CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Galushko, Artem |
|---|---|
| Title | Politically Motivated Justice in the Former Soviet Republics: A Comparative Analysis of Selected Trials in Western Europe and in the Former USSR |
| Summary | This dissertation examines the communist legacy of politically motivated justice in the former Soviet republics that have not yet completed their democratic transition after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. In order to answer my research question about the role of trials related to politics (‘political trials’) in the context of transitioning from state repression to the Rule of Law, I have conducted case studies of trials against political parties, acting or former politicians in four jurisdictions. The assessment of relevant court proceedings in Germany, Austria, Ukraine and Belarus confirms my hypothesis that ‘political trials’ in the transitional post-Soviet states are different from those conducted in Western Europe due to unwritten Soviet practices of politicized justice employed by post-Soviet ruling elites to remove formidable, popular political opponents. The undertaken research is novel, because it offers the analysis of politically motivated justice from a comparative legal perspective, while existing previous research has been limited to individual cases and missed identifying common characteristics of political trials in the former communist bloc. After studying extensive academic literature on the communist totalitarian system of justice, my research project names main types of politically motivated trials from the early Soviet Union until its late years as well as core unwritten practices of politicized justice that led to the split of the Soviet legal system into two parallel orders of formal and informal rules. It further introduces the novel theoretical concept of ‘Twofold Constitutionalism’, which helps better understand the interaction between formal written norms and unwritten political practices. The legal assessment of the communist traditions of politically motivated justice is very timely. In various republics of the former Soviet Union numerous opposition politicians, political rivals and government critics continue facing blatant violations of their constitutional rights and freedoms in criminal proceedings that look similar to notorious Stalinist show trials against the so-called ‘people’s enemies’. The absence of necessary reforms, weak democratic institutions, the lack of independent judiciary and no meaningful decommunization process still keep the unresolved issue of politically motivated trials and their Soviet practices on the democratization agenda of many post-Soviet states. The main contribution of this research is that it offers a list of prima-facie criteria to assess future allegations about politically motivated justice at various stages of criminal proceedings in the former Soviet Union. While the criteria cannot be used to categorically classify a trial as ‘politicized’ or ‘fair’, they rather offer a guidance what elements of criminal proceedings one should focus on to study the complex phenomenon of politicized justice. |
| Supervisor | Professor Dr. Bárd, Károly |
| Department | Legal Studies PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/galushko_artem.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University