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Journal of the Polish Section of IVR (ISSN:2082-3304)

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Pasikowski’s ‘Pigs’ as an Illustration of Vetting in a Transitional Society

Mgr Mateusz Grabarczyk

Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań

English abstract: Pigs, a 1992 movie directed by Władysław Pasikowski, has become an iconic picture over the years, growing into a source of quotes and becoming a cult classic. The film, while remaining commercially attractive, outlines many problems within transitional justice and opens a discussion regarding the vetting of the SB officers carried out at that time, including the selected model.

The plot of the film takes place in 1990, the period of political transformation in Poland after the fall of communism. Before the purely sensational action comes to the fore, the movie is largely about a reform of the MSW and the SB, about vetting of its officers and their fate while trying to find themselves in the new reality. It also shows that it is remarkably difficult to carry out reforms simultaneously in many fields: political, economic and social, and that it may be the source of a crisis.

The aim of this article is to present Pasikowski’s Pigs as a film that demonstrates the practical issues related to one of the mechanisms used in the framework of transitional justice, namely the vetting process. The movie as an artistic representation of individuals subjected to vetting opens discourse on transitional justice and the problem of dealing with undemocratic system. The paper concentrates on a general outline of the movie, paying attention to the vetting committees and their function within the framework of transitional justice. While presenting the normative model of officers’ vetting and juxtaposing it with the image shown in the film, the author displays basic moral and social problems related to the vetting.

Keywords: Pasikowski’s Pigs, security service, vetting, dealing with the past, transitional justice, decommunization

Language: English

Published: Number 1(26)/2021, pp. 100-111.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36280/AFPiFS.2021.1.100

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: dealing with the past, decommunization, Pasikowski’s Pigs, security service, transitional justice, vetting

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Keywords

Principles of philosophy of law dialogue regional ontologies civic society will in dubio pro reo legal positivism legal education justification Michał Pełka essentialism nonpositivist concept of law the attitudes of the legislator anti-crisis regulations virtue ethics normative theories of legal interpretation MacCormick ethics of never again Anscombe non-legislative lawful excuse neopragmatism adjudication mutual justifications Jursiprudence małgorzata król temporal nature of social systems Piotr Winczorek lawyers’ language lawmaking truth honorary judge public participation transplantation law as a cultural subject CLS natural language constitution’s functions Poland’s constitutional crisis “East” evolution human being skepticism lawyers American legal realism constitutional identity complementarity of values Andrzej Grabowski schools of legal thought Chaïm Perelman legal petrification of the past

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