McCargo, D (2015) Transitional justice and its discontents. Journal of Democracy, 26 (2). 5 - 20 (16). ISSN 1045-5736
Abstract
The political-transition paradigm has been widely debated in the pages of the Journal of Democracy and elsewhere, but its idealistic younger sibling, the transitional-justice paradigm, has rarely been scrutinized so critically. This article argues that as the International Criminal Court runs out of steam, the heyday of transitional justice—with its clamor for more international tribunals and truth commissions—has passed. Whatever lawyers want us to believe, laws are made by people, and law cannot be morally superior to politics. In the aftermath of mass violence, we need a combination of serious historical research and pragmatic political solutions, not therapeutic legalism.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015, John Hopkins University Press. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Journal of Democracy. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Politics & International Studies (POLIS) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Leverhulme Trust F00122BC |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 07 Oct 2015 11:24 |
Last Modified: | 16 Jan 2018 02:11 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jod.2015.0022 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | John Hopkins University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1353/jod.2015.0022 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:87535 |