Justice Under Party Control: Structure and Personnel of the Czechoslovak Socialist Judiciary (1948–1989)

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14220%2F25%3A00142901" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14220/25:00142901 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://ojs.mtak.hu/index.php/pazmany_law_review/article/view/20865" target="_blank" >https://ojs.mtak.hu/index.php/pazmany_law_review/article/view/20865</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.55019/plr.2025.1.25-49" target="_blank" >10.55019/plr.2025.1.25-49</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Justice Under Party Control: Structure and Personnel of the Czechoslovak Socialist Judiciary (1948–1989)

Original language description

This article explores the judiciary’s structure, personnel, and day-to-day operations in socialist Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1989. Drawing on fragmented archival materials, legislative sources, and select biographical profiles, it reconstructs how judicial authority was subjected to political control, particularly through Party oversight, selective recruitment, and internal discipline mechanisms. The analysis emphasises the regime’s strategic approach to institutional memory, characterised by the systematic destruction, displacement, or failure to preserve judicial records. It further examines the evolution of judicial practice – from the ideological extremism of the early 1950s to the more routine yet still tightly regulated legal environment of the normalisation period. Through the careers of prominent court presidents and judges, the article illustrates how professional advancement was determined not by legal merit but by political loyalty and conformity. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of law as an instrument of governance under state socialism. It addresses the methodological challenges inherent in reconstructing legal history in an environment of archival silence.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50501 - Law

Project

—

Continuities

N - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z neverejnych zdroju

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Pázmány Law Review

ISSN

2064-1818

e-ISSN

2786-393X

Volume of the periodical

12

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

HU - HUNGARY

Number of pages

25

Pages from-to

25-49

UT code for WoS article

—

EID of the result in the Scopus database

—