About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

30 Hum. Rts. Q. 95 (2008)
The Irreconcilable Goals of Transitional Justice

handle is hein.journals/hurq30 and id is 97 raw text is: HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY The Irreconcilable Goals of Transitional Justice Bronwyn Anne Leebaw* ABSTRACT The goals of transitional justice advocacy and institutions are commonly portrayed as mutually reinforcing and complementary. This article argues that in evaluating the political significance of transitional justice, more attention should be given to their irreconcilable goals. This analysis is informed by the work of legal scholars and political theorists that have drawn attention to the dual role of law in relation to violence. While law can be a tool for regulating violence and exposing abuses of power, law is also utilized to obfuscate and legitimate abuses of power. Similarly, transitional justice institutions aim to challenge the legitimacy of prior political practices by confronting denial and transforming the terms of debate on past abuses, yet they also seek to establish their own legitimacy by minimizing the chal- lenge that they pose to dominant frameworks for interpreting the past. This article demonstrates how a better understanding of this tension sheds light on problematic assumptions and unacknowledged trade-offs associated with the claims regarding the role of transitional justice institutions in advancing political reconciliation through measures designed to counter denial, expand * Bronwyn Leebaw is Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of California, Riverside. Her previous articles on theoretical approaches to human rights and transitional justice have appeared in such journals as Perspectives on Politics, Polity, Human Rights & Human Welfare, and Contemporary Justice Review. A draft of this article was presented at the 2007 meeting of the American Political Sci- ence Association. The author would like to thank Brad Roth and Chandra Sriram for their insightful comments as discussants on this panel. The article draws upon ideas developed for a paper done by the author as part of her work on the American Political Science Association Task Force on Inequality and Difference in the Developing World. The author would like to thank members of the committee and others who commented on the paper, including: Susan Woodward, John Echeverri-Gent, Susanne Rudolph, Lloyd Rudolph, John Harbeson, Michael Joseph Smith, and Victor Peskin. For conversations and exchanges that informed the development of the article, the author would also like to thank Ruti Teitel, Eric Stover, Harvey Weinstein, and David Pion-Berlin. Human Rights Quarterly 30 (2008) 95-118 © 2008 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most