Transitional criminal justice in post-dictatorial and post-conflict societies

Fijalkowski, Agata and Grosescu, Raluca, eds. (2015) Transitional criminal justice in post-dictatorial and post-conflict societies. Series on Transitional Justice (1st). Intersentia. ISBN 9781780682600

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Abstract

This volume critically considers the manner in which post-dictatorial and post-conflict states are addressing past human rights violations through judicial accountability. The book’s main objectives concern a fresh, contemporary, and critical analysis of transitional criminal justice as a concept and its related measures, beginning with the initiatives that have been put in place with the fall of the Communist regimes in Europe in 1989. By transitional criminal justice we understand mechanisms of judicial accountability carried out in post-dictatorial or post-conflict states in order to address past human rights abuses. In addition to trials, the concept also refers to cases where criminal law mediates other measures of accountability. The project argues for rethinking and revisiting filters that scholars use to interpret key issues of transitional criminal justice, such as: (1) the relationship between judicial accountability, democratisation and politics in transitional societies; (2) the role of successor trials in rewriting history; (3) the interaction between domestic and international actors and norms in shaping transitional justice; and (4) the paradox of time in enhancing accountability. In order to accomplish this, the volume considers cases of domestic accountability in the post-1989 era, from different geographical areas, such as Europe, Asia and Africa, in relation to key events from various periods of time. In this way the approach, which investigates space and time-lines in key examples, also takes into account a longitudinal study of transitional criminal justice itself.