Playing the Law
3. Februar 2011
Polish Dissidents and the Mechanics of the “Helsinki Effect”
Dr. Jarosław Kuisz (Warsaw University)
This lecture seeks to uncover the mechanics of the “Helsinki Effect” – the way Eastern European dissidents were using international human rights treaties to challenge communist governments. Because of reasons that lay within the field of culture, they were able to gain advantage over the governments, and successfully entrap them discursively. The dissidents were creatively ‘playing the law’.
The focus is on Poland, with regard not only to legal, but also to some sociological, historical, philosophical, literary and cinematographic sources. The analyzed processes were possible because a certain specific Central European ‘law culture’ was in place – making the law an effective lever, a field of political struggle. This combination of respect and – at the same time – flexibility of law is explained in cultural and discursive terms.
3 Februar 2011, 1 pm
University of Konstanz, Room Y 311
Contact
Research Group “Idioms of Social Analysis”
Kacper Szulecki
kacper.szulecki[at]uni-konstanz.de