Post-Communist Restitution and the Rule of Law

Eastern European societies underwent large-scale deprivations of property by the authoritarian regimes, beginning after World War II, largely ending with the last waves of the kolkhoz movement in the early 1960s. Kuti examines property reparations that took place after 1989, from the perspective of constitutional justice, the rule of law, but also from the point of view of identity politics. The book compares property restitution schemes in the Baltic States, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania; argues that the aims of compensation and reparation were coupled with goals of structural reform; and, provides an international perspective, through extensive reference to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as to some other jurisdictions confronted with indigenous peoples’ claims.