Suchergebnisse

The international discourse long depended on the term 'post-Soviet' to refer to the 15 sovereign states that emerged and re-emerged from the Soviet Union following its dissolution in 1991. The list includes European and Asian countries with contrasting backgrounds. Rooted in the context of the Cold War, the term fails to capture the crucial ongoing metamorphosis and challenges of these states for the past thirty years. For Lithuania and the Baltic region at least, the NATO Summit in Vilnius in July 2023 is a chance to emphasize the strong European identity and to challenge the deep colonial mindsets, which overlooks Eastern European perspectives in favor of those built in Moscow since the beginning of the 20th century.

Abstract
Since 1990 Lithuania has been claiming that what happened there during Soviet occupation is genocide, as per the 1948 Genocide Convention, which embodies universal justice for suppressed nations and other groups. Due to Soviet actions in Lithuania throughout the periods of 1940-1941 and 1944-1990, the country lost almost one fifth of its population. The application of Lithuanian national legal regulations regarding this issue has been recently discussed in the framework of another postwar international legal instrument – the European Convention of Human Rights (1950). The goal of this article is to examine the main debates, which were revealed by the European Court of Human Rights in the cases of Vasiliauskas v. Lithuania (2015) and Drėlingas v. Lithuania (2019), regarding the killings of Lithuanian partisans, including the recognition of the significance of partisans for the Lithuanian nation, the foreseeability of genocide "in part," as well as the punishment for complicity in killing Lithuanian partisans.

The new order of the elections of the peoples' courts, adopted in 1948, did not change basically the former elections practice. After the elections in 1949, 1951 and 1954 the massive and unanimous participation of society was stated, but in reality neither positive, nor negative voting results had an impact on the court formation. Forming the body of Soviet judges during the first years of the reoccupation was challenging, because of the low number of reliable judges which was attempted to reduce by political and legal training in legal classes and in special institutions of legal education. But the demand of legally educated and politically reliable judges was much higher than was possible to prepare in short time, therefore, in 1944–1956 randomly selected individuals of questionable reputation sometimes became judges, by whom not only the Soviet judiciary system, but the Communist regime as a whole, could be discredited. Therefore, in 1946 the Communist Party implemented the Decree which reformed legal and political education of judiciary officers. After this initiative, the training of legal officers and the results of political and legal education started slowly to improve.

The new order of the elections of the peoples' courts, adopted in 1948, did not change basically the former elections practice. After the elections in 1949, 1951 and 1954 the massive and unanimous participation of society was stated, but in reality neither positive, nor negative voting results had an impact on the court formation. Forming the body of Soviet judges during the first years of the reoccupation was challenging, because of the low number of reliable judges which was attempted to reduce by political and legal training in legal classes and in special institutions of legal education. But the demand of legally educated and politically reliable judges was much higher than was possible to prepare in short time, therefore, in 1944–1956 randomly selected individuals of questionable reputation sometimes became judges, by whom not only the Soviet judiciary system, but the Communist regime as a whole, could be discredited. Therefore, in 1946 the Communist Party implemented the Decree which reformed legal and political education of judiciary officers. After this initiative, the training of legal officers and the results of political and legal education started slowly to improve.

the political and professional qualifications. As in 1940–1941 Lithuanian communist party was not numerous, the membership in the communist party was not the condition of becoming a soviet judge. The political qualification of the candidate to the soviet judge was identified by the candidates' loyalty to the party which was estimated according to his or her and his or her family social status, nationality, profession, the main occupation before 15 th of June 1940 and after that date, the participation in opposition or trade union, the determination to implement party line and the connections with foreign countries. In 1940 the requirement for judges of special legal education was abolished, in result this let to format soviet courts from persons which had no legal work experience. The legal qualification of soviet judges was improved in law courses and in law schools. In soviet law doctrine the model of the appointment of the judges was rejected, so soviet judges in Lithuania in 1940–1941 were elected, but the system of soviet judges elections was created so that only the party had right to decide about the "election" of a judge.

the political and professional qualifications. As in 1940–1941 Lithuanian communist party was not numerous, the membership in the communist party was not the condition of becoming a soviet judge. The political qualification of the candidate to the soviet judge was identified by the candidates' loyalty to the party which was estimated according to his or her and his or her family social status, nationality, profession, the main occupation before 15 th of June 1940 and after that date, the participation in opposition or trade union, the determination to implement party line and the connections with foreign countries. In 1940 the requirement for judges of special legal education was abolished, in result this let to format soviet courts from persons which had no legal work experience. The legal qualification of soviet judges was improved in law courses and in law schools. In soviet law doctrine the model of the appointment of the judges was rejected, so soviet judges in Lithuania in 1940–1941 were elected, but the system of soviet judges elections was created so that only the party had right to decide about the "election" of a judge.

We present an excerpt (Part 3. The reborn Lithuania. 15. Sovereignty of a nation within the state constitution) from the manuscript Lietuvių tautos suverenumas; istoriniai-teisinė raida kovų už teisę ir laisvę ('Lithuanian National Sovereignty: Historical and Legal Development of the Struggle for Rights and Freedom') prepared in 1952 by the member of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Seimas of the First Republic of Lithuania the PhD doctor in law Pranas Viktoras Raulinaitis (1895–1969). The excerpt has an accompanying text briefly describing the history of the manuscript's discovery and the author's biography as well as outlining the potential value of the excerpt. We hope that the publication of this excerpt will trigger interest in the entire work preserved at Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., USA and accelerate the process of its publication not only in the Lithuanian but also in the English language.