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Should we punish wrongdoers? Should we take care of the ones who suffered from wrongdoings? Although we may believe answers to these questions are obvious, they become less so when similar questions are asked under exceptional circumstances, such as armed conflicts. These answers may decide about the continuation of hostilities or their end. The stakes are high, while we can hardly ignore the need to deal with the consequences of violence generated by a conflict. This book discusses the dilemmas and challenges associated with the provision of justice in the context of the armed conflict in Ukrainian Donbas in 2014–2019.

AbstractThe article analyzes the approach of the Ukrainian state to criminal accountability for crimes associated with the ongoing Donbas conflict: crimes against state security, which led to the outbreak of the conflict, and crimes committed by persons directly engaged in the conflict. The main question addressed in the article is whether there is any trace of a deliberate policy of mitigating punishments to those who engaged themselves in different sorts of anti-government actions associated with the Donbas conflict, for the sake of achieving peace. The article contains a comparative analysis of relevant court decisions in order to identify the combinations of conditions that led to the issue of suspended prison sentences (less punitive judgements). The findings suggest that Ukrainian authorities have consistently punished their adversaries in accordance with existing regulations. During the first four years of the conflict, the authorities have not appeared to provide any sort of concessions to their adversaries that could be justified by the circumstances of an armed conflict, and have acted in a manner that can be called "legalist."

"The current crisis in Ukraine has revealed a striking lack of background knowledge about Ukraine's history and politics among West European politicians, journalists, intellectuals and even many academics. In this book, experts from Poland, Ukraine, the US, Russia and Western Europe fill the gap between an omnipresent and easily available narrative about Russia and a scarce, scattered knowledge about Ukraine. They show what history and political science can offer for a better understanding of the crisis and provide insights, which are based on reliable Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and Turkish sources and confidential interviews with key actors and advisors. Rather than offering easy answers, the authors present facts and knowledge, which enables the reader to make up his own informed opinion"--

The current crisis in Ukraine has revealed a striking lack of background knowledge about Ukraine's history and politics among West European politicians, journalists, intellectuals and even many academics. In this book, experts from Poland, Ukraine, the US, Russia and Western Europe fill the gap between an omnipresent and easily available narrative about Russia and a scarce, scattered knowledge about Ukraine. They show what history and political science can offer for a better understanding of the crisis and provide insights, which are based on reliable Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and Turkish sou

This article attempts to make an empirical verification of the impact the electoral law on shaping the expectations of voters towards elected representatives. The analysis was conducted using data collected under the project entitled 'The impact of electoral rules on the quality of local democracy in Poland', whose fundamental premise was to take advantage of the situation arising after the amendment to the Electoral Code in 2011, as a result of which different electoral regulations were in force in the 2014 local government elections in various similar cities. Therefore, it was possible to verify a number of statements functioning in public space regarding issues, such as the positive impact of single-mandate constituencies on the quality of democracy (in particular, on the quality of democracy at the local level).The purpose of the analysis was to try to find regularities in changes in perceiving the role of councillors that may have occurred as a result of different electoral regulations. To this end, we used the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) methodology, which allows the study of relationships between sets and the interpretation of these relationships in terms of necessity and sufficiency.The results suggest that the introduction of the majority system in a number of cities in the 2014 local government elections did not lead to the formation of a coherent model of political representation at the city council level, which would be qualitatively different from the representation model characteristic for cities with a proportional electoral system.

This book discusses the crucial strategic topic for the practical implementation of transitional justice in post-conflict societies by arguing that the dilemma is defined by the extent to which the actual achievement of the political goals of transition is a necessary condition for the long-term observance and implementation of justice.

In recent years and decades, authoritarian regimes and illiberal democracies have passed and enforced punitive memory laws, intending to ban certain interpretations of past events or sheltering official versions of history against challenges. This comes as no surprise in countries whose governments undermine pluralism and assume the existence of a historical truth that is stable over time, invariable, and self-explanatory. But why do liberal democracies, committed to political pluralism and open debate, pass laws that penalize challenges to certain interpretations of the past and restrict freedom of speech? This article argues that liberal democracies may do so yielding to bottom–up pressure by courts and to regulate civil law disputes for which existing legislation and jurisprudence may not suffice. Based on case studies from Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia, we also found punitive memory laws in liberal democracies narrower and more precise than in nonliberal states.