Book Discussion - Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist Prague

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

This roundtable will reflect on the recently published book - Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist Prague (OUP) - co-authored by Mark Drumbl and Barbora Holá. Informers contribute to the power of repressive regimes. While informers may themselves be victims, and are enlisted by the state, their actions can cause other individuals to suffer significant harm. Informers, then, are central to the proliferation of endemic human rights abuses. 'Informers Up Close' explores two questions: (i) why ordinary people inform on others in repressive times, and (ii) how, after those times end, law and politics should speak of, to, and about informers.
Through a case-study of Communist Czechoslovakia (1945-1989)—and drawing from secret police archives, oral histories, and a broad gamut of secondary sources— 'Informers Up Close' unravels the complex drivers behind informing and the dynamics of societal reactions to informing. It explores the agency of both informers and secret police officers.
By presenting informers ‘up close’, and the relationships between informers and secret police officers in high resolution granularity, 'Informers Up Close' centers the role of emotions in informer motivations and underscores the value of dignity in transitional reconstruction. This book also leverages research from informing in authoritarian states to better understand informing in so-called liberal democratic states which, after all, also rely on informers to maintain law and preserve order.

Subtopic

• Topic 2: Types of Offending / Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes (Atrocity Crimes and Transitional Justice WG)

Chairs

• Mark A. Drumbl, Washington & Lee University

• Barbora Holá, The Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR) & Centre for International Criminal Justice, VU University Amsterdam

Discussants

• Kjersti Lohne, University of Oslo

• Maja Munivrana, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb

• Jakub Drápal, Charles University; Institute of State and Law of Czech Academy of Sciences

• Antony Pemberton, Katholieke Universiteit of Leuven (KU Leuven)