Law, Populism, and the Political in Central and Eastern Europe

This book addresses the variety of right-wing illiberal populism which has emerged in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

Against the backdrop of weak institutional traditions, frequent and profound transformations, and deep historical traumas affecting the law, politics, economy and society in the region, the book critically examines the entanglements of legality in the region’s transformation from state socialism to neoliberalism and Western-style democracy. Drawing on critical legal theory, as well as legal history, legal theory, sociology of law, history of ideas, anthropology of law, comparative law, and constitutional theory, the book goes beyond conventional analyses to offer an in-depth account of this important contemporary phenomenon.

This book will be of interest to legal researchers, especially of a critical or socio-legal perspective, political scientists, sociologists and (legal) historians, as well as policy makers seeking to understand the regional specificity and deeper roots of Central and Eastern European illiberal populism.

1. Populism, Legal Studies and CEE: Some Meta-Reflections
2. Against ‘Populism’: Critical Legal Studies and Authoritarian Politics in Central and Eastern Europe
3. The Polish Constitutional Court in the Grip of Neo-liberalism
4. Populism and the Politics of Human Rights: The Case of Poland
5. Exceptio Popularis: Resisting Illiberal Legality
6. Constitutional Signalling in Neoliberal Times: A Romanian Perspective
7. “Law Is Not Politics” – the Role of the Liberal View on Law in the Rise of ‘New Populism’
8. Who Stands In The Mirror And Who Stares Back – Traditions Of Populism In Slovakia
9. Judicializing Communism: Transitional Justice and Nationalist Populism in the Uneven Time-Space of Eastern Europe
10. Russian Conservatism and Populism: Between the Legal and the Political
Conclusions: Post-communism, Neoliberalism and Populism in the Semi-Periphery