Retribution as Legitimation: The Uses of Political Justice in Postwar Czechoslovakia

In: Contemporary European history, Volume 13, Issue 4, p. 477-492

Abstract

This article considers the postwar Czechoslovak regime's attempt to employ the courts to gain political legitimacy. In particular, it examines four retribution trials of prominent Czech collaborators and German Nazis and the role these cases played in the development of the contemporary power struggle. The article argues that the postwar regime's manipulation of the judicial system for political ends was fraught with contradictions and ultimately met with only limited success.