This paper offers three different case studies from Hungary, Russia, and Moldova to demonstrate the special role of powerful chief justices – László Sólyom, Valery Zorkin, and Alexandru Tănase – in facing authoritarian past and the possibility of reemergence of authoritarianism. Based on these case studies, I argue that the judgments of chief justices on transitional justice had a great influence on the constitutional development of East-Central European democracies. Sólyom and Tănase were eager for transition toward constitutionalism while Zorkin, once a pathfinder for constitutional ideas, served authoritarian imposition. Though led by entirely different moral and political convictions, neither of them respected objective principles of the constitutional text but simply imposed their own personal convictions. The lesson is that during political transitions constitutional adjudication based upon personal convictions may contribute to the reemergence of authoritarianism.

Our 2020 Annual Conference was scheduled to be held at the University of Wrocław in Poland on July 9-11, 2020.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICON·S Executive Committee has decided to postpone our 2020 Conference to 2021. Our next Annual Conference will take place from July 8-10, 2021, in Wrocław, Poland.
Procedural details regarding the organization of the 2021 Conference will follow in the months ahead.
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