§ PostCommunist Restitution u R le and the of Law Csongor Kuti Post-Communist Restitution and the Rule of Law Post-Communist Restitution and the Rule of Law Csongor Kuti Central European University Press Budapest New York © 2009 by Csongor Kuti Published in 2009 by Central European University Press An imprint of the Central European University Share Company Nádor utca 11, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary Tel: +36-1-327-3138 or 327-3000 Fax: +36-1-327-3183 E-mail:
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[email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the permission of the Publisher. ISBN 978-963-9776-40-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kuti, Csongor. Post-communist restitution and the rule of law / Csongor Kuti. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-9639776401 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Restitution—Europe, Eastern. 2. Europe, Eastern—Claims. 3. Confiscations— Europe, Eastern. I. Title. KJC7521.R48K88 2009 341.6’6--dc22 2009002733 Printed in Hungary by Akaprint Nyomda Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. On restitution and the rule of law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. What is it all about? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter 1. Theories of Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 1. Classical theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2. Neoclassical theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 3. Nozick’s theory of entitlement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 4. Derivation from justice: John Rawl’s theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 5. Practical applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 5.1 The Lockean perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 5.2 A Hobbesian premise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 5.3 Neoclassical cynicism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 5.4 Utilitarian aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 5.5 Rawls challenged . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 6. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Chapter 2. Justice and Reparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 1. Justice and the rule of law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 2. The context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 3. Property (re)distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 4. Aspects of justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 5. Forms of reparations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 5.1 The Baltic States: military occupation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 5.2 Poland: the struggle for restitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 5.3 Germany: fairness, justice, and the social state . . . . . . . . 87 5.4 Former Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania . . . . . . 89 6. Fundament