Political Dissent, Human Rights, and Legal Transformations: Communist and Post-Communist Experiences

Abstract

The article focuses on the legacy of political dissent in communist countries and its impact on post-communist political and legal transformations. The first part describes the nature of communist politics and the legal system founded on the principle of ‘socialist legality.’ In the following part, the dissident argumentative blend of legalism and natural rights will be analysed as both a critique of the communist system and a structural precondition of post-communist constitutional and legal transformations. The final part will focus on how the political dissent in communist countries symbolised virtues of civil society and liberal democratic politics based on the rule of law and influenced the emerging constitutional systems based on the protection of human rights.