Political Trials

The purpose of the article is to analyse the process of constructing the ideological portrait of the class enemy towards the politically non-involved intellectuals in communist Romania in the 1950s. The ideological construction of the enemy has been carried out by the communist party through the Securitate secret police. The research hypothesis is that the communist regime has instrumentalized the class enemy in order to justify repression and gain political legitimacy, alongside with obtaining increased political control over target groups in society. The method used is ideological analysis, followed by a case study concerning the Noica-Pillat trial from 1960. In the first part, the article deals with the evolution of the concept of „enemy” starting from Karl Marx and continuing with communist leaders from the Soviet Union and Romania. The second part aims to exemplify the ideological repression through the case study. The results suggest that the ideological figure of the enemy was a discursive construction used by the communist authorities to annihilate its real or fictitious opponents.

This study deals with the process of constructing political guilt within three political trials, all of them involving members of the German minority in communist Romania. Based on the archives of the former Securitate and on testimonies of the survivals of these trials, the present contribution analyzes issues such as the stages of the construction of political guilt within communist Romania institutional system. The analysis discusses the internal and external constraints exerted on the before mentioned process, as well as the strategies and techniques used by the Securitate in the three cases analyzed. The study argues that the political guilt which legitimized the conviction of those being accused within these trials was mainly constructed  through discursive means, the substance of the process consisting in the capture and translation of different discourses into the one issued by the Securitate, Military Procuracy and Courts.

How does criminal responsibility for state violence matter? This paper shows that in the interplay between courts, the President and Congress in Argentina in the 1980s, definitions of responsibility were understood as mechanisms for regulating trials. At the same time, ascriptions and performances of responsibility, obedience, and disobedience took on lives of their own as the officers who were interpellated as having been responsible in the past tried to work on crafting stories, responses, and public identities in response to the trials.

The thesis deals with the Czechoslovak communist politician Gustáv Husák in connection with the cause of the Slovak bourgeois nationalism. It is structured chronologically, sometimes interspersed with thematic areas. It draws from a wide variety of sources. The prevailing approach is positivistic and analytical.
The aim is to explain the emergence of the cause of the Slovak bourgeois nationalism and the way in which Husák was incorporated into it. The work points to a pivotal link with the international context and reveals poor relations between leading Party officials. Furthermore, the thesis raises issues of Husák’s political fall, fabricated charges, imprisonment and subsequently the complexity of the rehabilitation process, at the end of which Husák’s Communist Party membership was restored and a further political career remained a possibility. Additionally, the text tries to consider to a large extent the social relations between different participants and understand their motives of behavior. All of this is also put into perspective with respect to Czech-Slovak relations, which were significantly influenced by the aforementioned cause. The intention of the work deliberately exceeds the biographical theme.

On suggère ici que l’« opinion publique » a d'abord été, en Occident, une construction médiévale, principalement juridique et judiciaire, associée à l'émergence de pouvoirs d'un type nouveau – des pouvoirs d'État, ecclésial et séculiers. La fama communis ou publica, « voix et commune renommée du pays », prit une place croissante dans les sources judiciaires du Moyen Âge à partir des dernières décennies du XIIe siècle ou de la première moitié du XIIIe siècle. Son apparition correspond au début d'une mutation générale dans la nature de la production documentaire, avec le développement de l'écrit et de bureaucraties ; sa prégnance s'accroît en même temps que le volume des sources, désormais abondantes, parfois sérielles. Concomitamment, et bien qu'elle ne soit jamais réduite au seul statut de nomen juris, la fama est devenue un thème privilégié du droit. Si la notion prend une telle importance, c'est en particulier parce qu'elle reçoit une fonction cruciale dans la procédure inquisitoire, dont le développement, aux XIIe-XIIIe siècles, est au cœur d'une révolution non seulement judiciaire et gouvernementale, mais aussi, plus largement encore, socio-politique et cognitive. L'article présente les fonctions de la fama dans l'exercice de la justice au temps des premiers pouvoirs d'État et montre en quoi elle constitue une formation juridico-politique spécifique des derniers siècles du Moyen Âge. On la trouve au principe de grands découpages qui tendaient à organiser sinon l'exercice de la justice dans son ensemble, du moins celui de la justice criminelle, ainsi que des pans importants de la justice civile : elle déterminait le statut juridique des personnes en matière processuelle ; elle contribuait, comme élément probatoire minimal, à délimiter le domaine du procès ; elle le déclenchait en régime inquisitoire. Loin d'être d'être une force immanente d'auto-organisation du monde social, la fama est indissociable de relations de pouvoir qui mettent en jeu des institutions centralisées, à vocation publique, en cours de développement, et les communautés qu'elles soumettent à leur emprise (cette emprise étant encore lâche, au regard des situations de l'époque moderne). Formation mixte, à laquelle le droit prenait autant de part que la vie sociale, la fama correspondait à un cadre de négociations entre institutions et société propre aux premiers siècles des pouvoirs centraux en Occident. La compétence de véridiction monopolisée par ces pouvoirs était au principe d'une gouvernementalité spécifique, au cœur de laquelle les stratégies des acteurs comme des institutions s'organisaient en fonction du couple fama/veritas.

This paper aims to critically analyse the testimonies concerning Athenian impiety trials of the classical period. First, it reaffirms the arguments that some of them must have been an invention of Hellenistic and later authors. Second, it presents a likely political background behind the historical cases. Third, it discusses a number of legal issues, along with new arguments concerning the procedures employed. Finally, it examines some less well-known material from the fourth century BCE. Overall, it seeks to provide a possibly coherent and comprehensive framework of Athenian impiety trials based on their shared characteristics.

Spunti per una rilettura del caso Saisset, con il quale si aprí il "grand différend" tra Filippo il Bello e Bonifacio VIII nel 1301, cioè un momento chiave per lo sviluppo della Chiesa gallicana. L'analisi dei testi scritti nell'entourage regio (specie dal Nogaret) all'occasione del caso mette in luce gli inizi di un fenomeno di "pontificalizzazione" della monarchia capetingia, il quale si sarebbe accentuato negli anni 1302-1314 con le accuse rivolte a Bonifacio VIII e con il processo ai templari.

""En 1307-1308, le pape Clément V fit mener une enquête sur les crimes imputés à l’évêque d’Albi Bernard de Castanet par deux chanoines de la cathédrale, qui avaient présenté contre ce dernier, à la Curie romaine, une liste d’accusations. Le prélat était accusé négligence pastorale, de simonie, de dilapidation, d’irrégularités et cruautés systématiques dans l’exercice de la justice, d’assassinats, enfin d’incontinence. Peu après l’audition par les enquê­teurs pontificaux, à Albi, de cent quatorze témoins produits par les dénonciateurs, le pape annula la procédure. Mais trois jours plus tard, il désavoua l'évêque en le transférant du siège d’Albi à celui, bien moins prestigieux, du Puy.
L’étude de cette affaire, à partir d’une édition critique des actes de l’enquête d’Albi (conservés dans le registre 404 des Collectoriae aux Archives du Vatican), replace la démarche des dénonciateurs dans l’histoire conflictuelle de l’épiscopat de Bernard de Castanet (1276-1308) et démontre la continuité entre la volonté des témoins d’accréditer les crimes de ce dernier, d’une part, et, d’autre part, la lutte de l’oli­garchie urbaine contre la juridiction seigneuriale de l'évêque, mais aussi le mouvement anti-inquisitorial dirigé par frère Bernard Délicieux dans les années 1299-1306. Durement combattue par l'évêque, l’hérésie des bons hommes s’avère en effet être au cœur de l’affaire, bien qu’elle soit passée sous silence par les dénonciateurs. L’analyse met en valeur la nature informelle et les fondements sociaux et théologico-politiques de la dissidence religieuse. Par ailleurs, en replaçant la procédure dans la série des processus inquisitionis pour « crimes énormes » (enormia) menées par les papes contre les prélats depuis le début du XIIIe siècle et en l’étudiant en termes juridiques, l’étude de ce casus montre le rôle de l’enquête, comme instrument du gouvernement d’État, dans la construction d’une opinion publique (fama), ainsi que dans la différenciation d’une sphère administrative, à partir de la matrice judiciaire, à la fin du Moyen Âge.

In 1307-1308, pope Clement V had an inquiry made into a series of crimes attributed to bishop of Albi Bernard de Castanet by two canons of the cathedral, who had presented at the roman Curia a list of accusations against their spiritual ruler. The bishop was accused of pastoral negligence, of simony, of dilapidation, of irregularities and systematic cruelty in the practice of justice, of murders and of incontinence. Soon after the hearing by pontifical commissioners of a hundred and fourteen witnesses presented by the denouncers, the pope called off the procedure. But three days later, he implicitly penalized the bishop, removing him from the see of Albi to that of Le Puy, which was much less prestigious.
The study of this case develops from the critical edition of the records of the inquiry at Albi, which are held at the Vatican Archives (register 404 of the Collectoriae). The initiative of the denouncers is examined in the perspective of the conflictual history of Bernard de Castanet’s episcopate (1276-1308). A continuity is shown between the witnesses’ will to have the bishop’s guilt admitted, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the struggle of the urban élite against the bishop’s lordly jurisdiction, but also the anti-inquisitorial movement lead by brother Bernard Délicieux in 1299-1306. The heresy of the good men, which was vigorously fought by the bishop, proves to be at the heart of the matter, though the denouncer didn’t mention it at all. The analysis show the informal consistency and the social and theologico-political grounds of religious dissent. Besides, by replacing the procedure in the series of processus inquisitionis dealing with « enormous crimes » (enormia) launched by popes against prelates since the beginning of the XIIIth century and by examining it from a juridical point of view, the study of this casus shows the role played by inquiry, as a tool of State government, in the construction of a public opinion (fama), and in the differentiation of an administrative sphere from the judiciary matrix, in the end of the Middle Ages.""

The dissertation thesis discusses public activities, thoughts and the political life of JUDr. Gustáv Husák, CSc. (1913–1991), who was involved in the Czech-Slovak public space for sixty years with a significant footprint even today. The text is based on a thorough research and is chronologically structured, intertwined with thematic areas, however an analytical approach prevails. The first chapter focuses on Husák's youth, the factors that led him to the communist movement, and his early activism. This is followed by a portrayal of the Husák's activities during the Second World War, his role in the resistance, participation in a propaganda trip to the Nazi conquered Ukraine, and his vision of Slovakia as a republic of the Soviet Union. His later involvement in the Slovak National Uprising provided the legitimacy of his later political career in the post-war era, when he successfully led the struggle for the communistmonopoly of political power in Czechoslovakia and attempts to present the Communist Party of Slovakia as a national party. Next two chapters show the origins of Slovak bourgeois nationalism and the way Husák was incorporated with in, criminalized and eventually absolved. Further, the difficulties with Husák's return to politics are highlighted, which brought him for the time being to the field of historical science and opposition activities. The public support and activism during the Prague Spring helped Husák to become a vice-chairman of the Czechoslovak government and a leading position in the formation of federalization of Czechoslovakia. Although the image of Husák as a reformer was so strengthened, he remained convinced of the necessity of a communist power monopoly and a strong alliance with the Soviet Union as the guarantor of national independence and post-war socialism. After the entry of Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, this with his agility sufficiently convinced Moscow and cemented his position as the leader of the Communist Party for the next two decades. The final chapters present Husák as a skilled tactician and political practitioner who, after tragic death of his second wife, suffered from apathy that accompanied his gradual departure from public life. The text consistently stresses the fundamental interdependence of domestic events and international factors, whilst shedding light on personal relationships between Husák and other major figures. A thematic analysis is framed to a greater extent in connection with the Czech-Slovak relations, in which Husák played a significant role. His background in Slovak nationalism, and identity of a nationally oriented Slovak Communist, punitively criminalised him and still yet earned a large recognition of the Slovak public, who rightly assumed him as the father of the Czech-Slovak federation whose foundation he actually built. However, he always prioritised party discipline over national interest. In this context, we can perceive Gustáv Husák paradoxically both as a destructor and an architect of Slovak statehood upon which the foundation of today's Slovakia is built. In this respect, the intention of the dissertation purposefully transcends the biographical motif.

Presented documents do follow the study published in Pamäť národa 1/2020, dedicated to a less known case which has not been dealt with by the Slovak historiography till now. It is the case of Karol Šmidke, one of the most significant Slovak Communist functionaries. Beside him, also František Hagara, Jozef Hagara and František Mišeje, the three former partisan commanders, should have belonged to key persons of the case. The case of the group Karol Šmidke et al, which was elaborated by the State Security in 1950, was not brought before the court at the end. Nevertheless, is significantly contributes into the mosaic of political persecutions of Communist functionaries and former partisan commanders. Selected archive sources summarise the development and the course of this case investigation.

When six young latinos were arrested in the Mission District of San Francisco and charged with murdering a police officer, a community movement immediately began to form to defend them. Several had been activists in Third World Studies programs at local colleges. Strictly Ghetto Property tells the story of the highly charged trial, the "Los Siete" movement, and the political and social challenges faced by immigrant families.

Tragické životné osudy Alberta Púčika, Antona Tunegu a Eduarda Tesára-hlavných protago-nistov a obetí jedného z prvých veľkých vykonštruovaných politických procesov na Slovensku po roku 1948-sú už dnes pomerne známe. Naopak, menej známe, resp. takmer neznáme sú osudy ich 59 spoluobvinených. Medzi nich patrili aj súrodenci František a Gertrúda Herényiovci, ktorých rozsudok vojenského senátu Štátneho súdu v Bratislave poslal na dlhé roky do komu-nistického väzenia. O ich nespravodlivom odsúdení a väznení sa do roku 1989 hovoriť nesmelo a potom sa naň rýchlo zabudlo. Na nasledujúcich stranách sa preto pokúsime ich životné príbe-hy opäť poodhaliť.

Photographic and videographic images play an important role in political trials that aim at public audiences. Based on ethnographic fieldwork at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, this article argues that one needs to focus on the affective dimension of images in order to understand the performative power these images hold in court. Because of their status as objects rather than subjects, images of atrocities are likely to affect audiences more profoundly when they have less emotional stakes of their own in the case.

The assassination of Panamanian President José Antonio Remón in 1955 and the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 brought about public trials of immense political importance. The article compares the ways legal processes in Panamá and Cuba were represented in the media, with particular focus on visual images. In both cases, images were key to the shifting of public sensibilities and understandings of the trials. But although in both Cuba and Panamá legal consciousness became highly politicized, in the former, the trials solidified public support for the young Revolution, whereas in Panamá, the notion of a corrupted legal process undermined the regime as a whole.

Resumen
El asesinato del presidente panameño José Antonio Remón en 1955 y el triunfo de la Revolución Cubana en 1959 provocaron juicios de gran importancia política. Este artículo compara las formas que esos procesos judiciales fueron representados en los medios de comunicación en Panamá y Cuba, con especial atención a las imágenes visuales. En ambos casos, imágenes fueron claves para efectuar cambios en la sensibilidad jurídica del público y su entendimiento del proceso político-judicial. Pero aunque en Cuba y Panamá la conciencia jurídica se politizó, los tribunales solidificaron el apoyo público a la joven Revolución Cubana, mientras que en Panamá la noción de un proceso legal corrupto socavó el régimen en su conjunto.

Studentske demonstracije 1968. u Jugoslaviji dovele su do povećane režimske kontrole SKJ, koja je rezultirala brojnijim slučajevima suđenja i sudskih zabrana. Neoavangardni časopis „Új Symposion”, koji je od 1965. godine objavljivan u Novom Sadu, bio je jedna od meta pomenutih zabrana. Kao razlog je, između ostalog, naveden tekst čiji je autor Šandor Roža. U ovom radu ukratko je predstavljen slučaj „Uj Simposiona“, sa glavnim ciljem prikazivanja i analize usmenog intervjua sprovedenog sa Šandorom Rožom.

Political trials have been common in history, and have taken place in both consolidated democracies that respect the rule of law as well as authoritarian  regimes. As concentrated legal narratives and expressions of political activity, such trials are neither entirely pejorative nor positive. They are  microcosms of a specific political and cultural universe they seek to represent in concentrated legal form, and knowledge of context and the facts of each articular case are paramount. How then can such trials be analyzed and compared? The essay examines the current literature on political trials and argues against a single all-encompassing definition or typology in favour of a non-determinative list of criteria that illustrate how and under what conditions justice is politicized. Such a nuanced understanding of the range and type of factors that politicize trials is important because parallels between the Cold War and the current Global War on Terror indicate that such trials are not a feature of the remote past. Interpreting and applying the criteria suggested here would be helpful in order to recognize the processes of politicization, the didactic value of trials, particularly in situations of political transition.

In 1876, a recently dethroned sultan, Abdülaziz, was found dead in his chambers, the veins in his arm slashed. Five years later, a group of Ottoman senior officials stood a criminal trial and were found guilty for complicity in his murder. Among the defendants was the world-famous statesman former Grand Vizier and reformer Ahmed Midhat Paşa, a political foe of the autocratic sultan Abdülhamit II, who succeeded Abdülaziz and ruled the empire for thirty three years.

The alleged murder of the former sultan and the trial that ensued were political dramas that captivated audiences both domestically and internationally. The high-profile personalities involved, the international politics at stake, and the intense newspaper coverage all rendered the trial an historic event, but the question of whether the sultan was murdered or committed suicide remains a mystery that continues to be relevant in Turkey today. Drawing upon a wide range of narrative and archival sources, Rubin explores the famous yet understudied trial and its representations in contemporary public discourse and subsequent historiography. Through the reconstruction and analysis of various aspects of the trial, Rubin identifies the emergence of a new culture of legalism that sustained the first modern political trial in the history of the Middle East.

Sulla base di una ricerca condotta sull'archivio del Comitato bolognese di Solidarietà Democratica e sull'archivio della federazione locale del Pci, in questa breve relazione si presenta un quadro riassuntivo dell'attività di difesa legale, supporto economico-morale e pubblica svolta da Solidarietà Democratica (organizzazione del Fronte Democratico Popolare). L'arco cronologico considerato (1948-1961) è piuttosto ampio, seppur visto a volo d'uccello per la brevità richiesta. Inoltre, lo sguardo è concentrato sulla realtà cittadina e provinciale bolognese.
L'intervento si chiude con alcuni estratti documentari sul caso Fanin e sul gruppo comunista nel carcere di San Giovanni in Monte.

The rule of law is a widely used term in scholarship on Ottoman legal
reforms. Nevertheless, the actual meaning of this notion is rarely
clarifed in the writing on the late Ottoman Empire although theorists
of law have discussed the ambiguity of this term. This article aims at
examining the value of the rule of law as an analytical category when
discussing socio-legal change in the late Ottoman Empire. The article
demonstrates that the rule of law can be a meaningful category for
historical analysis when conceived through a ‘cultural perspective’ to
the law.

Among the censored press and criminal prosecutions led against individuals after the 1968 student demonstrations in socialist Yugoslavia, a Hungarian neo-avantgarde journal published in Novi Sad found its own place. The "Új Symposion" journal's two issues were banned at the end of 1971, and a few months later, its two authors and editor were criminally prosecuted. The aim of this article is to explore the occurrence of political trials in Yugoslavia on the example of the "Új Symposion" case, by looking into the trial documents, as well as the testimonies of three witnesses of this historical event.

The phrase ‘deep state’ in Turkish popular parlance refers to powers operating with impunity through and beyond the official state structure. Recently, a number of criminal trials brought the deep state into Turkey’s courtrooms. My focus in this chapter is on the most famous of these, the so-called Ergenekon trial. I offer a reading of the Ergenekon case file as comprising an archive of the Turkish deep state, not because it successfully captures its history and facticity, but rather because it allows insight into the rationalities and passionate investments that culminate in the reification of the deep state. Two concerns guide my inquiry here: the problem of producing knowledge about the deep state, and the performative production of the state in trials involving state crimes. These two issues are inevitably related, since ways of knowing the political are intimately tied to ways of reifying it (Abrams 1988). In Pierre Bourdieu’s words, the state ‘thinks itself through those who attempt to think it’ (1994, p. 1). The case file in the Ergenekon trial has its own way of conjuring the state, in a bizarre amalgam of fact, fiction, fantasy, desire and disavowal – an amalgam best understood, I argue, in terms of the conspiratorial imagination. I conclude the chapter with a consideration of a way of knowing the deep state beyond the limits of legal and conspiratorial imagination, an articulation that mobilises the legal archive for a counter-conspiracy against the conspiring case files.

In this translation, we present fragments from Artur Klinau’s latest book Eight Days of Revolution: A Documentary Journal from Minsk, commemorating the beginnings of the Belarusian Revolution. In it, he recounts the arrest of his daughter, filmmaker Daria Marta Klinava, on August 8, 2020. Zurkampf Verlag is scheduled to publish the German translation of this book later in 2021.

Original publication: https://alchemy.ucsd.edu/8-days/

In this paper author draws attention to a case of resistance against the communist regime, which occured in a Czech rural district almost 60 years ago. The work deals with a peasants' protest rally in front of the District National Committee building inDobruška. In December 1949, local private farmers decided to respond to official inspections of their homesteads (which force them to deliver disproportionately large amounts of produce within the framework of the Czechoslovak Communist Party's agricultural policy) by organizing a protest march to the headquarters of the District National Committee.

Příspěvek poukazuje na jednu z forem odporu proti komunistickému režimu na venkově, a to regionálním pohledem na událost, která se odehrála v Královéhradeckém kraji na Dobrušsku a od níž letos v prosinci uplyne 60 let. Jedná se o případ manifestačního průvodu před budovu Okresního národního výboru v Dobrušce, jímž místní rolníci zareagovali na přístup ONV ke kontrolám v zemědělských usedlostech. Akce, jíž 9. prosince 1949 v počtu asi 300 osob vyjádřili svůj protest proti nesplnitelným zemědělským dodávkám, skončila nejen pro mnoho přímých účastníků tragicky.

What is the effect of revolutions on legal systems? What role do constitutions play in legitimating regimes? How do constitutions and revolutions converge or clash? Taking the Arab Spring as its case study, this book explores the role of law and constitutions during societal upheavals, and critically evaluates the different trajectories they could follow in a revolutionary setting. The book urges a rethinking of major categories in political, legal, and constitutional theory in light of the Arab Spring.

The book is a novel and comprehensive examination of the constitutional order that preceded and followed the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Jordan, Algeria, Oman, and Bahrain. It also provides the first thorough discussion of the trials of former regime officials in Egypt and Tunisia. Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, including an in-depth analysis of recent court rulings in several Arab countries, the book illustrates the contradictory roles of law and constitutions. The book also contrasts the Arab Spring with other revolutionary situations and demonstrates how the Arab Spring provides a laboratory for examining scholarly ideas about revolutions, legitimacy, legality, continuity, popular sovereignty, and constituent power.

-- A comprehensive examination of the constitutional order that preceded and followed the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Jordan, Algeria, Oman, and Bahrain

-- Critically examines political, legal, and constitutional theory in light of the Arab Spring

-- Draws on comparative studies of the law and constitutions in diverse revolutionary contexts, covering examples from England, France, the United States, Russia, and Central and Eastern Europe

-- Facilitates access to a wide range of primary sources previously unavailable to anglophone readers, including court rulings in several Arab countries and the first thorough discussion of the trials and seizure of property of former regime officials in Egypt and Tunisia

Amazon:
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OUP:
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/law-and-revolution-9780198768890?lang=en&cc=fr

Procès politiques en Italie pendant les années de plomb : le cas de la poursuite judiciaire contre le mouvement « Autonomia Operaia » Résumé : Vers la fin des années 1970, dans le contexte de l'urgence liée à la lutte contre la violence politique et le terrorisme, un type de procès judiciaire assez inédit se déroule en Italie contre le mouvement « extra-institutionnel » « Autonomia Operaia ». Ce procès pénal, mieux connu sous le nom de procès 7 aprile, représente l'aboutissement d'une longue gestation durant laquelle certaines pratiques judiciaires spéciales se précisent. Elles sont d'abord utilisées pour contrecarrer la violence politique des mouvements extra institutionnels, puis employées dans la poursuite de certains groupes d'individus considérés comme les responsables de tout le mouvement subversif des années 1970. C'est tout au long de la durée presque décennale du procès 7 aprile que se cristallisent certains traits innovateurs du procès pénal en Italie, traits qui allaient être systématisés pour déterminer une véritable innovation du paradigme judiciaire pendant les phases de crise ou d'urgence. Mots-clés : procès politiques – terrorisme – pouvoir judiciaire – Italie Abstract : In the late 70s, an unprecedented trial took place against a backdrop of terrorism and political violence: the prosecution of the extra-institutional movement " Autonomia Operaia ". This case, better known as the trial of " 7th April " , marked the culmination of a long gestation period shaping special judicial practices. These were first used to counter political violence of extra institutional movements, then in order to prosecute some groups of people considered to be the leaders of 1970's subversive movement. The criminal case lasted 10 years and paved the way for some innovative features within the Italian Criminal Justice that would achieve thereafter a true innovation of the Justice System during crisis or emergency.

This article situates the history of the Russian Political Red Cross (the "Krest") in the context of the discourse of rights and humanitarianism in the early 20th century. During the period of its most vigorous activity, from 1918 to 1922, the lawyers and moderate socialists who made up its active core developed an ethos of "defending the rights of the individual" (zashchita prav lichnosti), especially against the encroachments of a menacing state.
The current essay traces the genealogy of this ethos from several overlapping and interrelated intelligentsia discourses - the legal discourse of individual rights; the sentimental discourse of outraged empathy; and the "red cross" discourse of humanitarian assistance. While it had no formal ties to the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or to the official Russian (then Soviet) Red Cross society, Krest leaders (including Nikolai Murav'ev and Ekaterina Peshkova) laid claim to "red cross" traditions: just as the ICRC and the national Red Cross societies cared for those wounded on the battlefield, and later also prisoners of war, so the Krest looked after the victims of internal conflict, and in particular political prisoners.
The article further explores both how the Krest established direct connection with international activists, including the nascent International Committee for Political Prisoners, and how Soviet authorities despite derisively dismissing "bourgeois" rights, co-opted this discourse and, paradoxically, claimed to be the more authentic guarantor of the rights of the individual. In a dialectical process, this recommitment to the semblance of human rights was seized on by the emerging dissident human rights movement of the 1960s, which insisted on holding the Soviet Union to its own written laws, just as Political Red Cross advocates had strived to do half a century before.

Through an exploration of the 1795 trial of Henry Redhead Yorke and drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of symbolic power, this article examines the range of judicial strategies available to defendants during the political trials of radicals in Britain during the tumultuous 1790s, and the consequences of their choices in this context. It establishes that Yorke's unwillingness and/or inability to adhere to one specific mode of defense, in conjunction with his tendency to employ incompatible discursive and rhetorical components, help us better understand why he was convicted. The specific case study of Yorke's trial demonstrates the structured instability of the political and legal atmosphere in Britain during the 1790s, both in terms of the power relations between radicals and the establishment, and in terms of the radicals' own identity.

Accompanying study to the new, uncensored edition of the novel Útěk deals with the author´s personality of Jiří Hejda. His work perfectly illustrates the different types of prison (e. g. the unique crowns of sonnets) and post-prison literary activity. Special attention is paid to the novel Útěk, one of the first testimonies to the experience of the political prisoner of the 1950s, embodied into adventurous story about escape from the prison fort Leopoldov. The publication of the novel in 1969 was affected by the forced (self)censorship, even so it has been withdrawn from sale and the novel was also confiscated from the public libraries at the beginning of the era of so called normalisation.
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Doprovodná studie k novému, necenzurovanému vydání románu Útěk představuje autorskou osobnost Jiřího Hejdy, na jejímž díle lze ilustrovat všechny polohy vězeňské (mj. unikátní věnce sonetů) a povězeňské literární činnosti. Zvláštní pozornost je věnována románu Útěk, jednomu z prvních svědectví o zkušenosti politického vězně padesátých let dvacátého století z pevné věznice, které je vtěleno do dobrodružného příběhu o útěku z leopoldovské pevnosti. Vydání Útěku v roce 1969 bylo poznamenáno vynucenými (auto)cenzurními zásahy, i přesto byl román záhy po vydání stažen z prodeje a na počátku normalizace navíc vyřazen z veřejných knihoven.

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