Introduction

Abstract

The transformation of communist property into private property was undoubtedly one of the most important changes to take place after the implosion of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989. In many ways, this remarkable transformation was a reversal of the ‘transfer’ of private property into the hands of the state that occurred in all the countries of the region both prior to and after the Second World War. However this transformation is poorly theorised in transitional justice studies and in legal scholarship. This study attempts to address the gap in the legal scholarship outlined above, by offering a new framework for analysing the post-communist transformations of property.