Transitional Justice Theories is the first volume to approach the politically sensitive subject of post-conflict or post-authoritarian justice from a theoretical perspective. It combines contributions from distinguished scholars and practitioners as well as from emerging academics from different disciplines and provides an overview of conceptual approaches to the field.
The volume seeks to refine our understanding of transitional justice by exploring often unarticulated assumptions that guide discourse and practice. To this end, it offers a wide selection of approaches from various theoretical traditions ranging from normative theory to critical theory. In their individual chapters, the authors explore the concept of transitional justice itself and its foundations, such as reconciliation, memory, and truth, as well as intersections, such as reparations, peace building, and norm compliance.
This book will be of particular interest for scholars and students of law, peace and conflict studies, and human rights studies. Even though highly theoretical, the chapters provide an easy read for a wide audience including readers not familiar with theoretical investigations.
Table of Contents:
Transitional Justice Theories: An Introduction Susanne Buckley-Zistel, Teresa Koloma Beck, Christian Braun, and Friederike Mieth
Part One: Theorizing Transitional Justice
Chapter 1 Transformative Justice, Reconciliation, and Peacebuilding Wendy Lambourne
Chapter 2 Rethinking Reconciliation in Divided Societies: A Social Learning Theory of Transitional Justice Nevin T. Aiken
Chapter 3 The Plural Justice Aims of Reparations Lisa J. Laplante
Chapter 4 Political Liberalism after Mass Violence: John Rawls and a Theory of Transitional Justice Kora Andrieu
Chapter 5 The Vertical and Horizontal Expansion of Transitional Justice: Explanations and Implications for a Contested Field Thomas Obel Hansen
Part Two Exploring the Limits of Transitional Justice
Chapter 6 Bargaining Justice: A Theory of Transitional Justice Compliance Jelena Subotic
Chapter 7 Narrative Truths: On the Construction of the Past in Truth Commissions Susanne Buckley-Zistel
Chapter 8 Redressive Politics and the Nexus of Trauma, Transitional Justice, and Reconciliation Magdalena Zolkos
Chapter 9 Forgetting the Embodied Past: Body Memory in Transitional Justice Teresa Koloma Beck
Chapter 10 Understanding the Political Economy of Transitional Justice: A Critical Theory Perspective Hannah Franzki and Maria Carolina Olarte
