The thesis deals with the trials of war criminals and quislings in Czechoslovakia after the Second World War. The thesis treats these in the broader context of the contemporary developments in international law, primarily in connection with the Nuremberg Trial. The thesis deals principally with the development of the idea of retribution; it focuses on the question whether the Czechoslovak retributive action was led primarily by the intention of bringing the criminals to justice or by desire for vengeance, and also on the international influences that can be traced in its development. Bibliography: Borák, Mečislav. Spravedlnost podle dekretu: retribuční soudnictví v ČSR a Mimořádný lidový soud v Ostravě (1945-1948). Ostrava: Tilia, 1998. Frommer, Benjamin. National Cleansing: Retribution against Nazi Collaborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Kühn, Zdeněk. Aplikace práva soudcem v éře středoevropského komunismu a transformace: analýza příčin postkomunistické právní krize. Praha: C.H. Beck, 2005. Malý, Karel, Soukup, Ladislav. Vývoj práva v Československu v letech 1945-1948. Praha: Karolinum, 2004. Pavlíček, Václav, Dejmek, Jindřich, Weigl, Jiří, Bažantová, Ilona (eds.). Benešovy dekrety: sborník textů. Praha: Centrum pro ekonomiku a politiku, 2002.