Transitional Justice -- Does it Have a Future?
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Transcript of Transitional Justice -- Does it Have a Future?
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7/28/2019 Transitional Justice -- Does it Have a Future?
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Call for Papers
Transitional justice: Does it have a future?
IJTJ Special Issue 2015
The International Journal of Transitional Justice invites submissions for its 2015 special issue
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 the global
stage. Over the years it has come to be billed as a panacea for addressing deeply embedded
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 sustainable peace, democracy and
human rights. But the historical record is not clear about a direct causal relationship between
transitional justice mechanisms and specific outcomes in postconflict societies. In some cases,
truth commissions, criminal prosecutions and other transitional justice interventions appear to
have given society a chance at a new and hopeful beginning. In others, conflicts have either re-
emerged or been exacerbated. Which begs the question, is transitional justice the appropriate
vehicle for achieving these goals? If it does not always lead to positive outcomes, why not? Are
there conceptual problems and theoretical deficiencies in how we make sense of justice and
transitions that account for the failures? Or is it the translation of transitional justice norms into
practice that is wanting?
The big question the 2015 special issue seeks to explore is this: Does transitional justice have a
future, given its mixed record? This issue brings together scholars and actors engaged in the
field of transitional justice to focus on the meaning of the concept, how its application has
evolved and whether it is sustainable as theory and praxis. How defined is the concept of
transitional justice? What exactly does it entail and what does it seek to achieve? Are political
democracy, the rule of law and human rights the pivots of liberalism the desired end resultsimplicit in transitional justice approaches? If so, why should liberalism be the germ of the new
postconflict society? If transitional justice promotes liberalism, who gains and who loses if it
succeeds? How would liberalism address deeply rooted cultural, colonial and ethnic rivalries
and inequities? Would structures of deep inequity be vanquished by these norms? Or does this
conception of transitional justice exacerbate conflicts as it seeks to transform societies? Who
pays for transformation? 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 those alternatives comparewith present conceptualizations of transitional justice? Should the term transitional justice
itself be discarded? This special issue will openly tackle these questions through both new and
established voices, with a particular emphasis on thinkers and actors from the global South. It
seeks contributions that are unbounded by existing thinking. The idea is to advance the debate
on transitional justice by re-examining core assumptions and plowing new intellectual ground.
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Professor Mutua is Dean, Distinguished Professor and the Floyd H. & Hilda L. Hurst Faculty
Scholar at Buffalo Law School, State University of New York. Previously, he was the Associate
Director at the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program and the Director of the Africa
Project at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. He was appointed by the Government of
Kenya as Chairman of the Task Force on the Establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation
Commission, which recommended a truth commission for Kenya. He serves as the Chairman ofthe Kenya National Human Rights Commission.
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 [email protected].
http://www.ijtj.oxfordjournals.org/http://www.ijtj.oxfordjournals.org/http://www.ijtj.oxfordjournals.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.ijtj.oxfordjournals.org/