Postgraduate Course: Transitional Justice in Context (PGSP11383)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Since the 1990s, transitional justice has become a central element in efforts to come to terms with a violent past in a number of countries. Especially in sub-Saharan Africa there have been experiments with a variety of different transitional justice mechanisms including truth commissions, international criminal tribunals and localized institutions supposedly more in tune with African culture and values. This course examines the whole range of transitional justice mechanisms from a social-scientific perspective, exploring crucial issues such as their actual functioning and local legitimacy.
The course addresses the key debates that have shaped the field of transitional justice. For a long time the field has been defined by the truth versus justice debate, whether truth commissions or criminal trials are the best means to realize closure and reconciliation, and the peace versus justice debate, whether criminal trial jeopardize the fragile peace and negotiations during a transition period. Recently, these discussions have been partly eclipsed by efforts to localize transitional justice, creating institutions more in tune with local values and culture.
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| Course description |
Outline Content:
1. THE HISTORY OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
How should we deal with the abuses and atrocities of past regimes? Should we seek to hold people to account or forgive in the name of reconciliation? What is the relationship between truth and justice? In the last thirty years a specific set of institutions have become associated with what has become known as 'transitional justice', with truth and reconciliation commissions and criminal tribunals at the fore. This lecture presents an overview over the history of transitional justice and the problem of effecting a new beginning eschewing violence.
2. THE KEY DEBATES
Two important debates have been shaping the field. The truth versus justice debate, whether truth commissions or criminal trials are the best means to realize closure and reconciliation, and the peace versus justice debate, whether criminal trial jeopardize the fragile peace and negotiations during a transition period.
3. TRUTH-TELLING AND NATIONAL RECONCILIATION
Truth commissions have been established to serve as alternative, quasi-juridical alternatives to amnesty for perpetrators of crimes, on the one hand, and criminal trials, on the other hand. The have the task to establish accountability and national reconciliation by producing an authoritative historical record of crimes and human rights violations. This week examines the model and its dissemination, the ideas that have been driving the set-up, mandate and work of transitional justice institutions in general.
4. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Since the late twentieth century there has a been a growing sense that some crimes are so heinous that the international community has a responsibility to prosecute those responsible no matter where the crimes took place. This lecture examines the various international criminal tribunals and their efforts to hold perpetrators of mass atrocity accountable. It will focus on the debate about the suitability of international criminal in the context of international criminal justice and the interplay between the tribunals' internal dynamics and international politics.
5. LOCALIZING TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
International criminal justice is often seen as aloof and far removed from local concerns and concepts of justice. In response, there have been calls to strengthen African community-based institutions to deal with the perpetrators of violence. But are these neo-traditional and localized forms of transitional justice really better suited to deal with human rights violations and war crimes? Are they really manifestations of African justice or rather inventions of well-meaning Western NGOs? These and other general questions surrounding attempts to localize transitional justice will be addressed in this week's lecture.
Weeks 6-10. CASE STUDIES
In weeks 6 to 10 we will discuss a number of case studies including experiences in Latin America, the former Yugoslavia and different parts of Africa including Sierra Leone, Liberia and Uganda.
Student Learning Experience:
This course has three aims: (1) to provide students with a critical understanding of key theoretical, conceptual and policy debates related to transitional justice, (2) to examine how these debates shape developmental and humanitarian interventions, and (3) to discuss the actual functioning of these institutions in their socio-cultural and political context. The course adopts an inter-disciplinary perspective drawing on legal studies, political science, social and cultural anthropology. Teaching will make use of case studies of transitional justice in Latin America, former Yugoslavia, South Africa, West Africa and Central Africa.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- show knowledge of academic and policy debates about transitional justice in context in relation to humanitarian and development interventions.
- critically understand the theories, concepts and the practice of the whole range of transitional justice mechanisms aimed at realizing new beginnings after widespread violence and oppression.
- show detailed knowledge of case studies examining specific transitional justice mechanisms in Africa and elsewhere.
- critically evaluate and analyse the empirical evidence on the operation of truth commissions, criminal trials and other forms of transitional justice.
- critically understand the challenges and realities of work in the field of international development, legal reform and humanitarian assistance.
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Reading List
Key Readings:
Allen, Tim. 2006. Trial Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Lord's Resistance Army. London: Zed Books.
Anders, Gerhard and Olaf Zenker, eds. 2014. Transition and Justice: Negotiating the Terms of New Beginnings. Special Issue Development and Change 45(3).
Arthur, Paige. 2009. "How 'Transitions' Reshaped Human Rights: A Conceptual History of Transitional Justice", Human Rights Quarterly 31(2): 321-367.
Bell, Christine. 2009. "Transitional Justice, Interdisciplinarity and the State of the 'Field' or 'Non- Field'", International Journal of Transitional Justice 3(1): 5-27.
Buckely-Zistel, Susanne. 2006. "Remembering to Forget: Chosen Amnesia as a Strategy for Local Coexistence in Post-genocide Rwanda", Africa 76(2): 131-150.
Branch, Adam. 2011. Displacing Human Rights: War and Intervention in Northern Uganda. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clark, Phil. 2010. The Gacaca Courts, Post-Genocide Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Clarke, Kamari Maxine. 2009. Fictions of Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Challenge of Legal Pluralism in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hagan, John, Ron Levi, Gabrielle Ferrales. 2006. "Swaying the Hand of Justice: The Internal and External Dynamics of Regime Change at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia", Law and Social Inquiry 31: 585- 616.
Oomen, Barbara. 2006. "Donor-driven Justice and its Discontents: The Case of Rwanda", Development and Change 365: 887-910.
Payne, Leigh A. 2008. Unsettling Accounts: Neither Truth nor Reconciliation in Confessions of State Violence. Durham: Duke University Press.
Pillay, Suren, Chandra Lekha Sriram, eds. 2009. Peace versus Justice? The Dilemma of Transitional Justice in Africa. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
Roht-Arriaza, Naomi, Javier Mariezcurrena, eds. 2006. Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth versus Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shaw, Rosalind, Lars Waldorf, Pierre Hazan, eds. 2010. Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities After Mass Violence. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Teitel, Ruti. 2000. Transitional Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wilson, Richard. 2001. The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wilson, Richard A. 2005. "Judging History: The Historical Record of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia", Human Rights Quarterly 27(3): 908-942. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Gerhard Anders
Tel: (0131 6)51 3178
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Benjamin Mcnab
Tel: (0131 6)51 5066
Email: |
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