Právní řád po roce 1989 a historická paměť
The legal code after 1989 and historical memory

Summary/Abstract: This study deals with the issue of embedding Czech historical memory in legal norms adopted after 1989. It chronologically describes the laws and other legal acts enacted as part of the “post-November” policy to try to correct the wrongs committed in communist Czechoslovakia, and it monitors the impact of lustration, rehabilitation and restitution. The author also addresses the practical application of this legislation, including its reflection in the jurisprudence of courts, and he comments on discontinuous laws such as Act No. 198/1993 Coll., Illegality of the communist regime and Resistance to it. This law became a pillar of the process “dealing with the past”, both by evaluating the communist regime (illegitimate, criminal and reprehensible) and exonerating and celebrating its active opponents. Other specific examples include the controversy surrounding fixing the date (25 February 1948) from which the political regime after 1989 would offer redress. He also addresses archives and institutions of historical memory, where he mentions the difficult process of making full access to the written sources of the communist security forces embedded in law and the creation of specialized bodies of the institutionalized memory of the nation, the legal dimension of anti-communist resistance, and the international context of these issues.

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