POL30910 Transitional Justice: Introduction and Current Debates

Academic Year 2022/2023

How do states come to terms with the legacy of conflict and human rights abuses? Many regimes now turn to mechanisms like truth commissions and amnesties to deal with the past and build a more stable future. While mechanisms such as truth commissions are increasingly common, they are part of a relatively new field: transitional justice. This course serves as an overview of the field of transitional justice, including current critiques of both the discipline and mainstream approaches to transitional justice design. The course will cover a history of the field of transitional justice, including its origins in Western legal norms, as well as an overview of the core mechanisms involved in transitional justice. With a focus on post-conflict transitional justice specifically, the course will incorporate case studies in its discussion of core mechanisms including trials/tribunals, truth commissions, amnesties, reparations, and reconciliation measures. The course will also interrogate the norms behind mainstream approaches to transitional justice by examining critiques rooted in feminist and radical democratic theory. Overall, the course provides a foundational understanding of transitional justice and its critics using examples from cases such as South Africa, Colombia, Northern Ireland, and Rwanda.

This module will be taught by a PhD student, Ms Emma Murphy.