crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
End-note from the editor
Peter Jambrek *1
The book comprises 43 texts prepared in various forms for the European public hearing on “Crimes
committed by totalitarian regimes”, which was organised jointly by the Slovenian Presidency of the
European Union (January–June 2008) and the European Commission, held on 8 April in Brussels. In
addition, it includes preface, written by the Slovenian minister of Justice, and former President of the
Slovenian Constitutional Court, Prof Lovro Šturm, introduction by the Vice-President of the European
Commission Mr Jacques Barrot, and closing remarks by the Director General of the Commission’s
Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security, Mr Jonathan Faull. Appended are the statement
signed by some of the participants at the European Hearing on its possible contributions, and the
January 2008 Initiative on the “United Europe – United History”. The book closes the index of names
and items.
Texts were edited for English language and typography mainly, end-notes were transformed into
foot-notes, and article sections were put into the uniform shape as to their titles and numbers. Where
available, elements of authors’ CV’s were footnoted following indication of their names.
As to their style of writing, contributions to this volume are rather heterogeneous: Some represent
written versions of authors’ discussions at the European Hearing; others take the form of a report or
an article written before or even after the Brussels conference. Some follow the style of an article
prepared for publication in a scientific journal; others come closer to the form of a speech or an essay.
In this sense, we admit, the publication does not follow a uniform pattern. And hope that the ensuing
incongruity of forms of expression may even be a welcome addition to the riches of ideas published in
the volume.
After careful reading and re-reading of the contributed texts, a five-fold structure of the book
evolved. It appeared convenient to introduce the volume by general, conceptual and historic articles,
where characteristics and comparisons of distinct totalitarian systems are discussed. Only thereafter a
cross-national survey of totalitarian crimes, the main theme of the symposium, seemed appropriate.
Following the conceptual, descriptive and comparative chapters, the publication turns from the past
towards the present. The ways of dealing with the traumatic European history were ordered into three
sequential chapters after weighting the prevalent emphases of the paper, sometimes with hesitation:
the first one dealing with specific instruments of transitional justice (e.g., prosecution, investigation,
reparation, rehabilitation, redress), the second one directed towards issues of public remembrance,
recognition and awareness, and the last one to the process of reconciliation.
Two articles about reconciliation seem properly juxtaposed at the very end of the last chapter of
the book: the one pointing to lessons that may be draw from successful experiences, and the other one,
turning in disbelief from the success stories to the hope for truth, at best.
* Peter Jambrek, Professor of international and constitutional law of human rights at the European Law Faculty in Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
He received his PhD degree at the University of Chicago and was teaching law and sociology until 1990 when he was appointed judge
and president of the Slovenian Constitutional Court. He served on the bench of the European Court of Human Rights (1993–98) and was
a member of the Venice Commission (1991–2008). At the present he is a member of the scientific committee of the European Union
Agency for Fundamental Rights.
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