Subverting Communism in Romania

Law and Private Property 1945–1965

Inbunden, Engelska, 2019

1 639 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 10-15 vardagar. Fri frakt för medlemmar vid köp för minst 249 kr.

Subverting Communism in Romania explores the role of law in everyday life and as a mechanism for social change during early communism in Romania. Mihaela Serban focuses on the regime’s attempts to extinguish private property in housing through housing nationalization and expropriation. This study of early communist law illustrates that law is never just an instrument of state power, particularly over the long term and from a ground up perspective. Even during its most totalitarian phase, communist law enjoyed a certain level of autonomy at the most granular level and consequently was simultaneously a space of state power and resistance to power. The book draws from archives recently made available in Romania, which have opened up new perspectives for understanding a mundane yet crucial part of the modern human experience: one’s home and the institution of private property that often sustains it.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2019-08-22
Mått161 x 228 x 22 mm
Vikt585 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor294
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9781498595674

Tillhör följande kategorier

Introduction: Law, Power, and Resistance in Early Communist RomaniaChapter One: The Many Faces of Communist LegalityChapter Two: Law, Subjectivity, and Legal ConsciousnessChapter Three: Property in Extremis: The Taking of HomesChapter Four: Resistance to Takings and the Construction of Socialist SubjectivitiesChapter Five: Legality, Ideology, and the Politics of TakingsChapter Six: Surviving Property: Private Property in Early CommunismConclusion

In Subverting Communism in Romania: Law and Private Property 1945-1965 Mihaela Serban makes a compelling argument that communist legality in socialist East and Central Europe should be equally understood as an instrument of state repression and a space for continuity, accommodation, and subversion. This argument is sustained by a rich documentation of historical and archival sources and interviews relating to the nationalization and expropriation of housing in the Banat region of Romania during the first two decades of the communist regime between 1945- 1965. By emphasizing significant continuities between the interwar civil law tradition and socialist law the author goes well beyond a specific case study. The monograph has broader implications for the complex relationships between any legal system and its subjects in a non-democratic society. Its sophisticated conceptual approach makes it an important source for a large academic audience including scholars of socialism and post-socialism, of law and society and of transitional justice.