8/13/2019 2015 IJTJ (International Journal of Transitional Justice) Special Issue -- Transitional Justice: Does it Have a Future? Guest Editor: Makau Mutua

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International Journal of Transitional Justice2015 Special Issue:

Transitional justice: Does it have a future?

Call for Papers

The International Journal of Transitional Justiceinvites submissions for its 2015 specialissue entitled Transitional justice: Does it have a future? to be guest edited by Dean

Makau Mutua.

It has been more than a quarter of a century since transitional justice burst onto theglobal stage. Over the years it has come to be billed as a panacea for addressing deeplyembedded social and political dysfunction after periods of mass repression and violence.Many theorists and policy makers have argued that it is a key bridge to sustainablepeace, democracy and human rights. But the historical record is not clear about a directcausal relationship between transitional justice mechanisms and specific outcomes in

postconflict societies. In some cases, truth commissions, criminal prosecutions and othertransitional justice interventions appear to have given society a chance at a new andhopeful beginning. In others, conflicts have either re-emerged or been exacerbated.Which begs the question, is transitional justice the appropriate vehicle for achieving thesegoals? If it does not always lead to positive outcomes, why not? Are there conceptualproblems and theoretical deficiencies in how we make sense of justice and transitionsthat account for the failures? Or is it the translation of transitional justice norms intopractice that is wanting?

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8/13/2019 2015 IJTJ (International Journal of Transitional Justice) Special Issue -- Transitional Justice: Does it Have a Future? Guest Editor: Makau Mutua

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The big question the 2015 special issue seeks to explore is this: Does transitional justicehave a future, given its mixed record? This issue brings together scholars and actorsengaged in the field of transitional justice to focus on the meaning of the concept, howits application has evolved and whether it is sustainable as theory and praxis. Howdefined is the concept of transitional justice? What exactly does it entail and what does itseek to achieve? Are political democracy, the rule of law and human rights the pivots

of liberalism the desired end results implicit in transitional justice approaches? If so,why should liberalism be the germ of the new postconflict society? If transitional justicepromotes liberalism, who gains and who loses if it succeeds? How would liberalismaddress deeply rooted cultural, colonial and ethnic rivalries and inequities? Wouldstructures of deep inequity be vanquished by these norms? Or does this conception oftransitional justice exacerbate conflicts as it seeks to transform societies? Who pays fortransformation? What about market forces and norms do they fuel or contain conflict?

If existing transitional justice concepts are inadequate to recover, or reclaim, societies

sickened by violence and repression, are there alternatives? If so, how do thosealternatives compare with present conceptualizations of transitional justice? Shouldthe term transitional justice itself be discarded? This special issue will openly tacklethese questions through both new and established voices, with a particular emphasison thinkers and actors from the global South. It seeks contributions that are unboundedby existing thinking. The idea is to advance the debate on transitional justice by re-examining core assumptions and plowing new intellectual ground.

Professor Mutua is Dean, Distinguished Professor and the Floyd H. & Hilda L. Hurst FacultyScholar at Buffalo Law School, State University of New York. Previously, he was theAssociate Director at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program and the Directorof the Africa Project at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. He was appointedby the Government of Kenya as Chairman of the Task Force on the Establishment of aTruth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, which recommended a truth commissionfor Kenya. He serves as the Chairman of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission.

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The deadline for submissions is 1 July 2014.

Papers should be submitted online from the IJTJ webpage atwww.ijtj.oxfordjournals.org

For questions or further information, please contact the Managing Editor atijtj@csvr.org.za