Suchergebnisse

Abstract Can a lack of transitional justice contribute to democratic backsliding? This paper uses the case of Poland to argue that selective enforcement of transitional justice can be linked to democratic erosion. In doing so, the paper adjudicates between two theories of democratic backsliding. The first, advanced by Milan Svolik, argues that elite polarization drives erosion: when political candidates are ideologically far apart, citizens who strongly prefer one over the other may turn a blind eye to antidemocratic transgressions by their preferred candidate to prevent the competing candidate from winning. The second theory, presented by Nalepa, Vanberg, and Ciopris (NVC), describes an equilibrium where voters are uncertain whether the candidate they are dealing with is a closet autocrat or an ideological incumbent, but reelect him into office regardless. This theory posits that a closet autocrat is reelected into office because his first period actions are identical to those of an ideological incumbent. I argue that judiciary reforms in Poland reflect exactly the kind of incumbent actions that are consistent both with the actions of an ideological incumbent and with the actions of a closet autocrat. Using survey data from Poland, I find evidence of elite polarization, offering support for the first theory, but also find ample evidence of polarization in the electorate and of a belief structure supportive of the equilibrium from NVC. I present Hungary's experience with transitional justice and the rule of law as a shadow case to illustrate similar dynamics to those taking place in Poland.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the increasing role of transitional justice in world politics and on-going peace processes. The indisputable increase in such procedures has certainly encouraged a vigorous debate on their suitability to politically stabilise the countries, which have suffered a belligerent period. The theoretical framework of my work is based on the constructivist idea that international organizations have the capability to emancipate themselves from their origin of power, the states, and to define themselves as an independent actor in international politics, also helped by the intrinsic nature of bureaucracy. Thus, I develop a game theory model of the belief that behaviour of international and internal criminals is based on a principle of rational choice. I defend the concept of rational choice, which is affected by the environment where it is implemented. In particular, an environment, which is more aware of international and human rights, can positively affect peace talks. Uganda is the central case for various reasons. Above all else, Uganda is the first instance ever of a transitional justice – represented by the International Criminal Court – issuing warrants before the end of the conflict. Furthermore, Uganda has not been seriously influenced by world top powers and it lies in the Central Africa, where the most recent cases of transitional justice took place. As is evident from my studies, I see a clear change in Uganda situation widely thanks to the sensitizing role of the International Criminal Court. Unfortunately, at the moment of writing (April 2009), lasting peace seems still a long way off, but the situation has clearly improved since the involvement of the ICC in the conflict. Asiasanat:Transitional Justice Game Bayes ICC Uganda LRA Museveni Kony Acholi Ajwaki

The article provides a detailed and informative account of the transitional justice process in Albania and examines the logic behind the initiation of lustration process. Describing the accurate historical context of the country's communist past, the authors explain the factors that prevented the successful implementation of the post-communist transitional justice in Albania, such as its political culture, the impact of the communist regime, and most importantly, the lack of political will from Albanian political leadership to break away from its communist past. A pioneer in initiating transitional justice laws in the Balkans in the early nineties, Albania failed to successfully implement them, as the leadership saw the lustration process as a political means to crush the opposition and consolidate its power. The article explains that transitional justice process in Albania became highly politicized and was used by politicians for political gains, which ultimately led to loss of trust from general public failing to detach the Albanian political scene from its communist past.

Transitional societies must contend with a range of complex challenges as they seek to come to terms with and move beyond an immediate past saturated with mass murder, rape, torture, exploitation, disappearance, displacement, starvation, and all other manner of human suffering. Questions of justice figure prominently in these transitional moments, and they do so in a dual fashion that is at once backward and forward looking. Successor governments must think creatively about building institutions that bring justice to the past, while at the same time demonstrate a commitment that justice will form a bedrock of governance in the present and future. This is no easy task, and shortcuts, both in dealing with the past and in building a just future, often appear irresistible. In Martha Minow's words, justice at this juncture amounts to replacing "violence with words and terror with fairness," and steering a "path between too much memory and too much forgetting." The template of mechanisms available to undertake transitional justice are familiar to those who work in this field: prosecutions (domestic and international); truth and reconciliation commissions; lustration (the shaming and banning of perpetrators from public office); public access to police, military and other governmental records; public apology; public memorials; reburial of victims; compensation or reparation to victims and/or their families (in the form of money, land, or other resources); literary and historical writing; and blanket or individualized amnesty. In most cases, justice demands the deployment of a number of these tools, given that no one of them can adequately address and repair the injuries of the past nor chart a fully just future. Transitional justice will always be both incomplete and messy.

The article attempts to describe Taiwan's progress and a difficult position in practicing transitional justice during its democratic process. The first section reviews Taiwan's democratic progress and the impact on the implementation of transitional justice caused by a regime transition type. The second section describes Taiwan's authoritarian rule period, from February 28 Incident to the White Terror's political types of political cases. The third section analyses the reasons for Taiwan's unfinished transitional justice. The article claims that during Taiwan's political engineering of transitional justice, compensation for the victims was almost the only act of it and at the same time lacking legal or moral prosecution of the inflictors and the truth discovery. Taiwan has never had an opportunity to reflect on the damage caused by the system of the authoritarian rule, so that many inflictors or cooperators of the system have continued to serve in the democratized government in key positions, which has resulted in the prevailing phenomenon of impunity. Such a handling mode to compensate the victims, not willing to investigate theinflictors and seeking the historical truth, cannot solve the crime left by the authoritarian era alone, but it can also bring about a serious crisis of democratic governance in Taiwan

The tension between law and politics places transitional justice under cross-pressures. The impetus to hold Perpetrators legally accountable for atrocities and major rights violations has emerged in part from the expectation that subjecting political behavior to the apolitical judgment of law will exert a civilizing effect. As demands for accountability have risen, politics has played a central role at every step. The past decade has seen a flourishing of research in empirical political science on the relationship between law and politics in postconflict and postauthoritarian justice. This research has tried to explain the turn to individual legal accountability and the development of norms and institutions for accountability. Research has stressed the role of politics in shaping the implementation of trials and other modes of accountability. It has also examined the consequences of these modes of accountability. We address research on each of these topics. Adapted from the source document.

Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans covers civil society engagements with transitional justice processes in the Balkans. The Balkans, whose physical geography is generally considered to be the former Yugoslavia, as well as Albania, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, is a region marked by the post-communist and post-conflict transitional turmoil in which its countries are entangled. With contributions coming from localized and international scholars, this volume provide a comprehensive look at the research in transitional justice in this part of the world, Transitional justice is an ever-growing field which responds to dilemmas over how successor regimes should deal with past human rights abuses of their authoritarian predecessors. This volume explores the ways in which civil society--lay citizens who participate in government and non-government organization without seeking monetary compensation--affect and drive the transitional justice process. The editors and author emphasize the relatively unexplored and under-researched role of civil society groups and social movements, such as local women's groups, the role of art and community media and other grass-roots transitional justice mechanisms and initiatives, in the Balkans' movement towards making peace with the past. Through specific case-studies, the unique contribution of Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans is not only that it covers a part of the world that is not adequately represented in the transitional justice field, but also that it is one of the first projects originally researched and written by experts and scholars from the region or in collaboration with international scholars. By taking a more critical look at national strategies, local practices and priorities, and by closely examining international transitional justice agendas, the authors explore the complex and unpredictable justice processes currently underway in the Balkans. They suggest lessons to be learned from those engagements and identify future directions that may be taken in order to bring a sustainable peace to the region. With its effective combination of empirical studies and theoretical grounding, Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans serves as an excellent resources for scholars of peace studies, the Balkans, historians, peace psychology, transitional justice, political science, civil society, sociologists, criminologists, and anybody interested in the process by which nations and peoples heal themselves.

The US approach to transitional justice -- The development of US foreign policy on transitional justice -- US involvement in the Khmer Rouge tribunal -- US involvement in the Taylor trial and Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission -- US involvement in the Colombian justice and peace process

Abstract
Indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples often describe the harm caused by armed conflict in terms of damage inflicted on their traditional territories. To these peoples, the concept of territory makes reference not only to their lands but to a set of emplaced practices and relationships through which they share life with wider assemblages of human and other-than-human beings. It is the threat faced by these large communities of life that was invoked by Indigenous organizations when they succeeded in including the territory as a victim in the transitional justice framework recently implemented by the Colombian state. This article argues that the consideration of the territory as a victim means more than the full enjoyment of the land ownership rights Indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples are entitled to. Instead, said consideration challenges some received notions regarding justice and reparation, particularly because war becomes an experience that extends beyond human losses and environmental degradation. The terms and practices mobilized by Indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples compel us to examine the limits that concepts such as human rights, reparation, or even damage have in the understanding of war and its aftermath.