Ομιλία του Egor Lazarev (Assistant Professor, Yale University) με τίτλο: «The Rule of Lawyers: How Legal Elites Shape Democracy and Dictatorship in the Caucasus»

Το ΕΚΚΕ σας προσκαλεί στην ομιλία του Egor Lazarev (Assistant Professor, Yale University) με τίτλο: «The Rule of Lawyers: How Legal Elites Shape Democracy and Dictatorship in the Caucasus».

Η παρουσίαση θα γίνει την 

Τρίτη 9 Ιουνίου στις 12μμ 

στο κτίριο του Εθνικού Κέντρου Κοινωνικών Ερευνών (Κρατίνου 9, 8ος όροφος), στην αγγλική γλώσσα.

Περίληψη:

The post-1989 transitions in Eastern Europe were defined by twin imperatives: democratic institution-building and market liberalization. Economists dominated this first wave of reform. The subsequent "color revolutions” brought a different elite to the fore: lawyers. The legalization of civil society, driven by international donors including the Open Society Foundation (Soros) produced a cadre of cause lawyers who contested authoritarian power through the courts. At moments of regime change, these lawyers pressed for radical reform agendas, often framed as transitional justice. Against them stood legal establishments forged under post-Soviet authoritarianism and reinforced by capacity-building programs of organizations such as the Council of Europe, who resisted such agendas in the name of the rule of law. These conservative legal elites tend to prevail; when incumbent authorities strike a pact with them, it creates a structural precondition for autocratization. The argument is deliberately counterintuitive: democratization, the rule of law, vibrant civil society, and Western linkages can interact in ways that ultimately entrench authoritarianism. The presentation develops this argument through the case of Georgia.