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International Journal of Law and Social Justice

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ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/ijlsj.2026.06.001

Critical Issues with Legal Regulation of Collaborationism in Contemporary Latvia

Aleksejs Jelisejevs

Turiba University, Rīga, LV-1058, Latvia.

*Corresponding author: Aleksejs Jelisejevs

Published: January 22, 2026

Abstract

This article examines the legal challenges concerning collaborationism in contemporary Latvia, particularly the lack of explicit legal provisions addressing voluntary cooperation with occupying powers. Using a recent case involving Professor Uldis Krastiņš as a springboard, it highlights prominent gaps in national security legislation and compares Latvian law with more defined approaches in Lithuania and Ukraine. The article argues that peacetime legal reform is crucial for strengthening civic resilience and providing clarity on criminal punishment for collaborationism. As such, it contributes to ongoing scholarly debates on loyalty, treason, and post-occupation justice in the broader context of national security law, legal continuity, and the role of democratic systems in confronting occupation legacies and preparing for future aggression.

Keyword

Collaborationism; Hybrid Warfare; Legal Continuity; National Security Law; Post-Occupation States; Soviet Legacy; Comparative Criminal Justice

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Copyright

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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
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How to cite this paper

Critical Issues with Legal Regulation of Collaborationism in Contemporary Latvia

How to cite this paper: Aleksejs Jelisejevs. (2026). Critical Issues with Legal Regulation of Collaborationism in Contemporary Latvia. International Journal of Law and Social Justice2(1), 1-5.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/ijlsj.2026.06.001