Legal institutions refer, in their original design, to a certain normality, but between the moment of creation of a legal institution and its application to future situations there is always a time lag, our Research Affiliate Rafal Manko writes in his article in Law and Critique.

Drawing insights from legal history and comparative law, and building on various intellectual traditions, ranging from Evgeny Pashukanis to Giorgio Agamben, the paper puts forward a novel theory explaining how it is possible that the same legal forms can be invested with very different meanings and endowed with initially unplanned social functions, at the same time maintaining, from a legal perspective, their identity. The theory put forward in the paper can be put to work to account for the unexpected continuity of law after revolutions and transformations, such as - for instance - the post-communist transition in Central and Eastern Europe.

Read the full article here.