Transitional justice cases against Lithuania at the European court of human rights

ENThis chapter addresses transitional justice in Lithuania by looking at the relevant cases of the European Court of Human Rights. The aim is to highlight specific features of Lithuanian experience of transitional justice in the context of human rights and, specifically, to examine whether Lithuania is still a country in transition in any respect. Transitional justice cases against Lithuania decided at the European Court of Human Rights fall into the following categories according to their subject matter: (1) cases related to the restitution of property rights, (2) cases related to the lustration of collaborators with the totalitarian regime, (3) cases related to the punishment of perpetrators guilty of acting against the Republic of Lithuania, (4) cases related to the freedom of expression with regard to the past. The chapter concludes that the circumstance of transition has lost much of its importance for Lithuania regarding the first two categories of cases because of the progress in building pluralist democracy and successful integration into European structures. It remains, however, relevant for the last two categories of cases, notably where disagreements about the history of the wrongs of the Soviet communist regime arise. [From the publication]