Prepared in dictionary format, this volume reexamines the uses of political trials. Through the conduct and context of key trials throughout history, the reader is made to understand an aspect of public life too easily misconstrued, although never neglected: the political side of litigation. Most of the trials in this volume were significant enough to continue to shape our interpretation of the law long after the court made its judgment and all appeals were completed. The dialogue they initiated may last for decades, even for centuries. Such trials provide us with an insight into the vital aspects of our public life, the civilizing capacity of politics.

Central Europe - here, Poland, the German Democratic Republic, Czechoslovakia and Hungary - is at the centre of international attention since the Soviet collapse. An understanding of its postwar history is critical to an appreciation of the challenges facing its present rulers. This is an engrossing account of the installation, development, operation and eventual downfall of its (very different) communist regimes, and the transition to the freedoms and uncertainties of the post-Soviet world. The book covers political, economic, social and cultural change, emphasising the crucial relationships with the USSR throughout.