Critical Legal Theory in Central and Eastern Europe

The present special issue has the ambition of contributing to the further development of critical legal theory of a specific, Central and Eastern European strand, paying attention to the characteristic features of the legal life of our region. The nine papers in this volume can be divided into four distinct groups, addressing issues of our current predicament and its methodological implications (papers by Cercel, Tacik and Mercescu); questions of Central and Eastern European legal identity (paper by Mańko and by Nazmutdinov); theoretical and philosophical issues particularly in the contemporary Central and Eastern European context (papers by Fusco and Reid); and finally, questions of law and ideology in Central and Eastern Europe analysed through the lens of case studies from various areas of positive law (papers by Kuźmicka-Sulikowska and Rudt).The main question that we want to address is the methodology of critical legal theory as applied to the specific context of Central and Eastern Europe, although the focus of the papers is broader, and some of them already make a tentantive application of critical legal methods to the black-letter law of the region. As critical legal scholars, we need to take Central European specificities very seriously and, at the same time, we should be aware of the risks of applying and propagating critical legal tools, which are, as it is well known, sometimes abused by the populists. This does not mean that we should suspend or repress the development of critical legal theory in Central and Eastern Europe. To the contrary, we should take stock of the moment and work towards adapting the critical legal instrumentarium to the needs of the time and place. The current crisis of neoliberal legality creates a unique opportunity that we must definitely utilise to our advantage.