25 Year Later. Law and Society after Communism. an Attempt of Assesment

In 2014 it will be 25 anniversary of the collapse of communism which started in Poland. The paper will focus on role of law played in the post-communist transformation. It will try to show the dilemma of law sued as tool of social change and law situation when legal institutions function in normatively empty or/and sometimes hostile environment.

The second part will be devoted to role of law in dealing with the communist legacies especially abuses of human rights and restitution of property.

Next I will present a hidden dimension of the operation of formal law in the post-communist social systems concluding with portrait of law and society 25 years after the collapse of communism.