History did not end with the collapse of communism and neither did it begin. The four decades of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have cast a shadow over politics since those heady revolutionary days of 1989–91, when the communist regimes collapsed, provoking practical and normative questions of how to deal with the past.

In their insightful new edited volume, Lavinia Stan and Nadya Nedelsky have assembled a number of leading scholars in the field—including Aleks Szczerbiak, Roman David, and Helga Welsh—to examine the nature, speed, and sequence of transitional justice programmes over the past quarter of a century in post-communist CEE.

Edited volumes can map or measure. Post-Communist Transitional Justice falls into the former category. The book does not provide a common framework: Its chapters fall into the category of fascinating forays rather than systematic measuring of a central research question. Some chapters offer detailed analyses of individual cases using qualitative approaches, whereas others offer the quantitative testing of hypotheses across the region. The blend of chapters works well, although will not suit every reader’s palate.

The editors organize the chapters into four themes: causes, effects, challenges, and neglected factors and actors of transitional justice in CEE. The focus on the effects is particularly welcome given the major focus in the extant literature seeks to explain the variations in timing and extent across CEE. Nonetheless, two of the best chapters in the book cover the determinants of transitional justice: Robert Clegg Austin’s analysis of the oft-neglected case of Albania, and Aleks Szczerbiak’s account of the late lustration programmes in Poland.

Much has been made in the literature that in Poland the first lustration law to exclude those who had collaborated with the communist-era security service was passed not under a government led by forces that emerged from the anti-communist opposition, but rather in 1997 when the communist-successor party was in power. As Szczerbiak reminds us, however, the law was passed thanks to the votes of the opposition and the communist-successor party’s coalition partner, the Polish Peasants Party. Moreover, Szczerbiak challenges the view that transitional justice in Poland “was almost completely instrumentalized by strategic, office-seeking political elites” (p. 61) who were “motivated purely and simply by partisan interests and instrumental imperatives to gain a strategic advantage over their political competitors” (p. 66). Indeed, calls for lustration had strong normative underpinnings and were not always removed from ideological considerations.

The Polish case, however, appears to contrast markedly with Albania. Indeed, Austin highlights how transitional justice in Albania can only be understood within the context of the power struggles between the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party (which emerged out of the Communist Party). The purges of the state sector—thanks to the new Labour Code in 1991, the Genocide Law, and The Verification Law introduced in 1995 under a Democratic Party government, the (relative) inaction during eight years of Socialist Party rule, and the introduction of new laws by a Democratic Party government just before elections in 2009—all seem to underline how transitional justice was just used as a weapon in party political warfare.

Whereas elsewhere in the region, as Helga Welsh’s contribution shows, the role of international bodies was largely restricted to influencing “discourse and practices” (p. 175), in Albania international organizations changed policy. An OSCE mission in 1997 brokered a deal with the Democrats and Socialists which “drastically reduced” the scope of the Verification Law (p. 38) and the 2008 law “was killed by the combined forces of Albania’s civil society and Constitutional Court, the international community, and the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission” (p. 45).

Chapters on the effect of transitional justice policies by Roman David on the Czech Republic and Moira Lynch and Bridget Marchesi on “The Adoption and Impact of Transitional Justice” provide valuable lessons. David suggests the Czech case points to the dangers of an emphasis on justice, which can be seen to be victor’s justice. Indeed, he argues that a “degree of reconciliation” is needed (p. 116). Lynch and Marchesi underline how sequencing matters. Their analysis indicates it is better to do the vetting of the judicial sector before embarking on prosecutions, as this might help ensure such processes are free and fair.

In the most thought-provoking chapter in the book, Cynthia Horne examines whether the timing of reforms matters and when it is too late to start transitional justice measures. The case for early lustration is both logical and clear given that those who benefited from links with the communist-era security services are likely to be in positions of power and influence. But what about a decade or two later? Assessing a range of lustration laws across CEE and examining the relationship with levels of trust in government, Horne suggests “the optimal time to start lustration is nine to ten years after the regime change” (pp. 136–7). Although this argument is backed up with statistical evidence, her plausible claim that “timing is less important than the quality of reform” (p. 141) appears to be no more than a logical assertion as she never explains what she means by the quality of reforms.

Given the lack of a common framework for the contributors to follow, it is perhaps no surprise that Post-Communist Transitional Justice does not offer any specific conclusion. Indeed, no single message shines through Stan and Nedelsky’s volume except the clear complications of designing and implementing an effective set of policies designed to ensure transitional justice. That, in itself, is not an earth-shattering finding, but after a few hours in the company of Post-Communist Transitional Justice readers will be armed with more cases and examples to reflect on—not just the experience of a quarter century of policies in CEE, but what lessons to draw for other parts of the globe seeking to develop policies to deal with difficult pasts.