Defence Counsel ‘Maestro’
Description: Most literature in international criminal justice/law has considered the victim, prosecutor, courts, or the perpetrators. Yet, the defence lawyer as a key protagonist is largely ignored. The SLSA-funded ‘Defence Counsel “Maestro” project aims to rectify this gap. It will focus on the Polish defence lawyer Stanisław Hejmowski (1900-1969). Hejmowski made a mark at the national war crimes trials of 1946-1948 and later in the high-profile trials of 1956, which involved strikers in Poznań. His success was based on training in a state at a time when five separate legal systems were in force owing to partition rule that lasted over a century in Poland. This project will access Hejmowski’s private, personal archive and case notes to inform a better understanding about the defence lawyer and the strategies that are used in high-profile cases. Bio: Dr Agata Fijalkowski is Reader-in-Law at Leeds Beckett University. Her research looks at national war crimes trials post-WW2 and the respective legal teams. Agata’s monograph Law, Visual Culture, and the Show Trial with Routledge is forthcoming in 2023.