Constitutional Law and Human Rights in Eastern Europe

The significant political, economic, and social changes in Eastern Europe from the 90s of the twentieth century brought the adoption of new Constitutions, endorsing both new principles of state organization and also a complex of human rights, specific to liberal Western European societies. The aim was through constitutional acts to integrate new philosophical and political views regarding the role, content, and scope of individual rights into the legal system of the Eastern European countries. The article explores the process of integration of the liberal concepts of democracy and human rights into the national legal systems of Eastern Europe, focusing on the main factors that shaped the transformation. The first part examines the concept of Eastern Europe and the key features of the constitutional structure and legal system in the countries of Eastern European before the 1990s. Then, the complex process of interaction between the European organizations and the Eastern European countries during the adoption of their new liberal constitutions is analyzed. Finally, the article explores the integration of the human rights system into the legal systems of Eastern Europe after the 1990s, shaped by the collaboration among the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), and national authorities.