Imperfect Justice: An East-West Diary

"Yes. It’s a diary of Markovits’ interviews and conversations with East German judges, lawyers, and parties to legal disputes — either in labour law or family law — immediately before the reunification of East and West Germany, and then right after. It tells us about the ripple effects that transitions have on different areas of law and on ordinary citizens, citizens who may not have been perpetrators of wrongdoing or direct victims of wrongdoing, or even collaborated or been complicit in wrongdoing, but are nonetheless affected by transitions. “Transitions don’t always benefit everyone, and they’re not always welcomed by those who face regime change” Part of what comes out in her book is that transitions don’t always benefit everyone, and they’re not always welcomed by those who face regime change. You hear about workers in factories who can no longer rely on being given compensation if they’re laid off, as had been the case under the East German system. People lose the rationale for their career, and for the sacrifices they had made for the sake of job security, which no longer existed. A lot of ordinary citizens struggled to find a place in the new society. Professionals struggled too. Judges who had a certain skill set under a socialist legal order found themselves looked down on, and not valued in the same way. While we think of transitions as important achievements, they have differential effects on members of transitional communities. Markowits’ book is invaluable for that basic insight, and also because it raises the question of lustration. Her book offers a nice set of reflections on the question of who should play a public role in the new order. Yes. I think that the uncertainty of what will happen in transitions comes on many levels. There is characteristically uncertainty in the overall political trajectory of the society. Then there is also uncertainty at the individual level: what does this transition mean for me? What does it mean for my job security? Can I even talk about job security in the same way? What does it mean for my children and the future they have? For older individuals: what does it mean for retirement or pensions? Yes. The loss of privilege is never welcome. Finding a way to successfully navigate the recognition of undeserved privilege and acceptance of equality of those who were previously seen as and treated as unequal is absolutely essential for long term success of transitions. Otherwise, you get resentment that develops. You get seeds for future conflict, or a refusal to actually deal with structural inequality. When you look at a place like South Africa for white South Africans or if you look in the United States with white Americans, you see ongoing challenges in dealing with accepting that other groups that were historically looked down on as second class citizens are entitled to equal rights and standing as well."