Dictatorship, Democracy, and Transitional Justice in Global Legal History

The anthology presents the lectures given on the symposium "From Dictatorship to democracy" at the House of the Wannsee Conference on 13-14 September 2021. The aim of the organizers was to show what problems existed during the transition from dictatorship to democracy in several countries around the world. They all enacted laws or other measures to ensure that fundamental rights and the rule of law would resist anti-democratic ideologies, anti-Semitism, racism, and war crimes in the future. However, the legal system and law in these countries themselves often had their origins in dictatorship. Thus, there were and are obvious and hidden anti-democratic continuities that influence law and the legal system up to the present. Scientifics and jurists from Italy, Japan, Poland, Spain, South Africa, and Germany examine these continuities in their contributions. The anthology presents the lectures given on the symposium "From Dictatorship to democracy" at the House of the Wannsee Conference on 13-14 September 2021. The aim of the organizers was to show what problems existed during the transition from dictatorship to democracy in several countries around the world. They all enacted laws or other measures to ensure that fundamental rights and the rule of law would resist anti-democratic ideologies, anti-Semitism, racism, and war crimes in the future. However, the legal system and law in these countries themselves often had their origins in dictatorship. Thus, there were and are obvious and hidden anti-democratic continuities that influence law and the legal system up to the present. Scientifics and jurists from Italy, Japan, Poland, Spain, South Africa, and Germany examine these continuities in their contributions.

Ignacio Czeguhn studied law in Würzburg, where he also completed his phD and habilitation. He holds a chair in civil law, European and German legal history and comparative legal history at the Free University of Berlin, is a member of the academic advisory board of the Society for Imperial Chamber Court Research, a member of the Royal Academy of Law and Jurisprudence in Granada and a recipient of the Georges Sarton Medal of the Faculty of Law at Ghent University (2017). Since 2018 he is also corresponding member of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences in Leipzig.

Jan Thiessen studied law at Humboldt University Berlin, Dr. iur. (PhD) and habilitation ibidem. From 2010 to 2017 he held the Chair of Civil Law, German and Contemporary Legal History, Commercial and Corporate Law at Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen. Since 2017 he holds the Chair of Civil Law, Contemporary Legal History and History of Business Law at Humboldt University Berlin. Since 2015 he is Member of the Working Group for Legal Studies and Contemporary History at the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz.