D. Venema

Prosopography, History and Legal Anthropology: Two Comments on the Belgian Case

Prosopographical databases are of major interest for research work. As resources enabling a significant saving of time, they provide undeniable value to the conclusions put forward in the analysis, which are far more reliable than those drawn from a classic manual examination and interpretation of sources. Lastly, the material and human means necessary to achieve such databases have to be dealt with (J.C.Farcy).The common denominator in the three different types of government in these case studies—annexation, colonialism, occupation—is foreign rule: Belgium under French and German rule, and King Leopold and Belgium as foreign rulers of Congo. The perspective of purity and contamination, in connection with (evolutionary) group dynamics provides an essential background for assessing the sociological and symbolic importance of the judiciary in a constellation of foreign rule (D.Venema).

Koen Aerts, ‘Repressie zonder maat of einde?’ De juridische reïntegratie van collaborateurs in de Belgische staat na de Tweede Wereldoorlog

Koen Aerts, ‘Repressie zonder maat of einde?’ De juridische reintegratie van collaborateurs in de Belgische staat na de Tweede Wereldoorlog (Ph.D. Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek-Vlaanderen 2011; Gent: Academia Press, 2014, xix + 547 pp., isbn 978 90 382 2282 0).

Transitional Shortcuts to Justice and National Identity

National legal systems undergo profound changes when they are confronted with undemocratic power seizure. The same occurs when they experience a transition (back) to democracy. Thus far, these two types of transition have been studied in relative isolation. Nevertheless, it seems that both undemocratic usurpers and democratizing regimes affect the role of fundamental rule-of-law principles in similar ways. This article compares both types of transition and suggests that pragmatism and national identity are the driving forces behind similar legal mechanisms, affecting legal principles, in those two forms of transition. Drawing on Carl Schmitts idea of the state of exception and Ruti Teitels work on transitional justice, this article shows that both kinds of transition share the same fundamental legal structure.