Transitional Justice Theories

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.

"The breadth of contributions and the variety of approaches make Transitional Justice Theories a thought-provoking book and an important resource for those interested in the theoretical aspect of transitional justice" - Marcos Zunnio, Queens College Cambridge, UK "This volume covers an impressive breadth of conceptual discussion of transitional justice." -Rita Shackel, Current Issues in Criminal Justice "Overall, Transitional Justice Theories is packed with consistently informative, engaging, and thought-provoking essays that are sure to grab the attention of anyone interested in justice on an international scale. The fact that the volume approaches transitional justice theory and its problems from a multi-disciplinary standpoint ensures a greater potential for the proliferation of discourse within this area that is able to respond to the issues raised by the authors. The book's authors refrain from attempts at drawing conclusions to theoretical transitional justice, and instead issues are often left open to the interpolation of alternative or less congenial ways of thinking about the dominance of Western legal discourse within the transitional justice framework, offering the opportunity for further scholarly discussion and development." -Pedram Esfandiary, Nottingham Trent University, Internet Journal of Criminology