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.

The rule of law after Communism: an introduction, Martin Krygier and Adam Czarnota. The Rule of Law: Legal cultures and the rule of law, Philip Selznick; Positivist or non-positivist rule of law?: Polish experience of a general dilemma, Lech Morawski; Rules of law: the complexity of legality in Hungary, Antal Ã-rkény and Kim Scheppele; Institutional Optimism, cultural pessimism and the rule of law, Martin Krygier. Constitutionalism: Traditional elements in the constitutions of Central and East European democracies, Péter Paczolay; The paradigm of constitutionalism - the Hungarian experience, Vilmos Sós; Paradigm lost? The constitutional process in Poland and the hope of a grass roots constitutionalism?, Grazyna Skapska; Rights and freedoms under the new Polish constitution, Wojciech Sadurski. Dealing with the Past: Can we do justice to the past?, Adam Czarnota and Piotr Hofmanski; Lustration and decommunization: ethical and theoretical debates, Andrzej Kaniowski; Lustration or the Czech way of screening, Jirina Siklová. Crime: Is revolution a solution?: state crime in Communist and post-Communist Poland (1980-1995) Maria Los and Andrzej Zybertowicz; Social transformation and crime: a crisis of deregulation, Suzanne Karstedt. The International Dimension: The collapse of totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe and the international rule of law, Dencho Georgiev.