Illiberal Transitional Justice and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Illiberal Transitional Justice and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia PDF Author: Rebecca Gidley
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030047830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
This book examines the creation and operation of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which is a hybrid domestic/international tribunal tasked with putting senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge on trial. It argues that the ECCC should be considered an example of illiberal transitional justice, where the language of procedure is strongly adhered to but political considerations often rule in reality. The Cambodian government spent nearly two decades addressing the Khmer Rouge past, and shaping its preferred narrative, before the involvement of the United Nations. It was a further six years of negotiations between the Cambodian government and the United Nations that determined the unique hybrid structure of the ECCC. Over more than a decade in operation, and with three people convicted, the ECCC has not contributed to the positive goals expected of transitional justice mechanisms. Through the Cambodian example, this book challenges existing assumptions and analyses of transitional justice to create a more nuanced understanding of how and why transitional justice mechanisms are employed.

Illiberal Transitional Justice and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Illiberal Transitional Justice and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia PDF Author: Rebecca Gidley
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030047830
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
This book examines the creation and operation of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which is a hybrid domestic/international tribunal tasked with putting senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge on trial. It argues that the ECCC should be considered an example of illiberal transitional justice, where the language of procedure is strongly adhered to but political considerations often rule in reality. The Cambodian government spent nearly two decades addressing the Khmer Rouge past, and shaping its preferred narrative, before the involvement of the United Nations. It was a further six years of negotiations between the Cambodian government and the United Nations that determined the unique hybrid structure of the ECCC. Over more than a decade in operation, and with three people convicted, the ECCC has not contributed to the positive goals expected of transitional justice mechanisms. Through the Cambodian example, this book challenges existing assumptions and analyses of transitional justice to create a more nuanced understanding of how and why transitional justice mechanisms are employed.

Illiberal Transitional Justice

Illiberal Transitional Justice PDF Author: Rebecca Anna Gidley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) was created by an agreement between the Cambodian government and the United Nations with a mandate to put Khmer Rouge leaders on trial for crimes committed during their 1970s regime. Judicial responses, such as the ECCC, to periods of mass violence have been termed transitional justice since the 1990s. Although the definitions of transitional justice are very broad, the explanations and analyses offered by the literature contain implicit assumptions that transitional justice is being implemented as part of a transition towards liberal democracy. In this thesis I use the case of Cambodia to challenge these assumptions and propose a new category of illiberal transitional justice. Before the creation of the ECCC began, the Cambodian government had spent nearly two decades shaping the narrative of the Khmer Rouge period to suit its political interests. When the United Nations became involved in discussions for a Khmer Rouge tribunal the government was concerned to protect itself and this narrative. The negotiations took place over six years where both sides competed for control over the mechanism. This competition for control was then transferred to the national and international sides of the court once the ECCC became operational. Although all actors involved in the ECCC frequently invoked the language of procedure, in practice procedures were easily dismissed if they were inconvenient. Given this discussion of the ECCC's establishment and operation, I consider the court in light of the expectations of the transitional justice literature. The ECCC was not adhering to the assumed outcomes regarding ending impunity, building the rule of law, or strengthening democracy, and instead these changes were being actively impeded by the Cambodian government. Rather than pursuing these expected goals the Cambodian government was using the ECCC to enhance its international legitimacy and to strengthen its domestic political control. I argue that the ECCC should be considered an archetypal example of illiberal transitional justice. Cases of illiberal transitional justice sit on a spectrum between liberal transitional justice, which currently dominates the literature, and cases of transitional justice employed by repressive regimes, which are largely ignored in the literature. The ECCC, as a case of illiberal transitional justice, sits on the boundary between legitimacy and illegitimacy. The court maintained its legitimacy through the ongoing UN involvement and adherence to the language of procedure, but this legitimacy was challenged by the political interference of the Cambodian government in the court's operation. Illiberal transitional justice is a different conception of what the rules are, how important they are, and when they are important. In this thesis I challenge existing assumptions and analyses of transitional justice to create a more nuanced understanding of how and why transitional justice mechanisms are employed.

Transitional Justice in Established Democracies

Transitional Justice in Established Democracies PDF Author: S. Winter
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137316195
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Truth commissions, apologies, and reparations are just some of the transitional justice mechanisms embraced by established democracies. This groundbreaking exploration of political theory explains how these forms of state redress repair the damage state wrongdoing inflicts upon political legitimacy.

United States Law and Policy on Transitional Justice

United States Law and Policy on Transitional Justice PDF Author: Zachary D. Kaufman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190668407
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
In United States Law and Policy on Transitional Justice: Principles, Politics, and Pragmatics, Zachary D. Kaufman explores the U.S. government's support for, or opposition to, certain transitional justice institutions. By first presenting an overview of possible responses to atrocities (such as war crimes tribunals) and then analyzing six historical case studies, Kaufman evaluates why and how the United States has pursued particular transitional justice options since World War II. This book challenges the "legalist" paradigm, which postulates that liberal states pursue war crimes tribunals because their decision-makers hold a principled commitment to the rule of law. Kaufman develops an alternative theory-"prudentialism"-which contends that any state (liberal or illiberal) may support bona fide war crimes tribunals. More generally, prudentialism proposes that states pursue transitional justice options, not out of strict adherence to certain principles, but as a result of a case-specific balancing of politics, pragmatics, and normative beliefs. Kaufman tests these two competing theories through the U.S. experience in six contexts: Germany and Japan after World War II, the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, the 1990-1991 Iraqi offenses against Kuwaitis, the atrocities in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Kaufman demonstrates that political and pragmatic factors featured as or more prominently in U.S. transitional justice policy than did U.S. government officials' normative beliefs. Kaufman thus concludes that, at least for the United States, prudentialism is superior to legalism as an explanatory theory in transitional justice policymaking.

Transitional Justice Theories

Transitional Justice Theories PDF Author: Susanne Buckley-Zistel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135055068
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Transitional Justice Theories is the first volume to approach the politically sensitive subject of post-conflict or post-authoritarian justice from a theoretical perspective. It combines contributions from distinguished scholars and practitioners as well as from emerging academics from different disciplines and provides an overview of conceptual approaches to the field. The volume seeks to refine our understanding of transitional justice by exploring often unarticulated assumptions that guide discourse and practice. To this end, it offers a wide selection of approaches from various theoretical traditions ranging from normative theory to critical theory. In their individual chapters, the authors explore the concept of transitional justice itself and its foundations, such as reconciliation, memory, and truth, as well as intersections, such as reparations, peace building, and norm compliance. This book will be of particular interest for scholars and students of law, peace and conflict studies, and human rights studies. Even though highly theoretical, the chapters provide an easy read for a wide audience including readers not familiar with theoretical investigations.

Rethinking Transitional Justice for the Twenty-First Century

Rethinking Transitional Justice for the Twenty-First Century PDF Author: Dustin N. Sharp
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108598307
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Transitional justice is the dominant lens through which the world grapples with legacies of mass atrocity, and yet it has rarely reflected the diversity of peace and justice traditions around the world. Hewing to a largely western and legalist script, truth commissions and war crimes tribunals have become the default means of 'doing justice'. Rethinking Transitional Justice for the Twenty-First Century puts the blind spots and assumptions of transitional justice under the microscope, and asks whether the field might be re-imagined to better suit the diversity and realities of the twenty-first century. At the core of this re-imagining is an examination of the broader field of post-conflict peace building and associated critical theory, from which both caution and inspiration can be drawn. By using this lens, Dustin N. Sharp shows how we might begin to generate a more cosmopolitan and mosaic theory, and imagine more creative and context-sensitive approaches to building peace with justice.

Reconceiving Civil Society and Transitional Justice

Reconceiving Civil Society and Transitional Justice PDF Author: Joanne Wallis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000061353
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
Reconceiving Civil Society and Transitional Justice examines the role of civil society in transitional justice, exploring the forms of civil society that are enabled or disabled by transitional justice processes and the forms of transitional justice activity that are enabled and disabled by civil society actors. Although civil society organisations play an integral role in the pursuit of transitional justice in conflict-affected societies, the literature lacks a comprehensive conceptualisation of the diversity and complexity of these roles. This reflects the degree to which dominant approaches to transitional justice focus on liberal-legal justice strategies and international human rights norms. In this context, civil society organisations are perceived as intermediaries who are thought to advocate for and support formal, liberal transitional justice processes. The contributions to this volume demonstrate that the reality is more complicated; civil society can – and does – play important roles in enabling formal transitional justice processes, but it can also disrupt them. Informed by detailed fieldwork across Asia and the Pacific Islands, the contributions demonstrate that neither transitional justice or civil society should be treated as taken-for-granted concepts. Demonstrating that neither transitional justice or civil society should be treated as taken-for-granted concepts, Reconceiving Civil Society and Transitional Justice will be of great interest to scholars of Security Studies, Asian Studies, Peacebuilding, Asia Pacific, Human Rights, Reconciliation and the Politics of Memory. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of Global Change, Peace & Security.

Transitional Justice

Transitional Justice PDF Author: Ruti G. Teitel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019988224X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
At the century's end, societies all over the world are throwing off the yoke of authoritarian rule and beginning to build democracies. At any such time of radical change, the question arises: should a society punish its ancien regime or let bygones be bygones? Transitional Justice takes this question to a new level with an interdisciplinary approach that challenges the very terms of the contemporary debate. Ruti Teitel explores the recurring dilemma of how regimes should respond to evil rule, arguing against the prevailing view favoring punishment, yet contending that the law nevertheless plays a profound role in periods of radical change. Pursuing a comparative and historical approach, she presents a compelling analysis of constitutional, legislative, and administrative responses to injustice following political upheaval. She proposes a new normative conception of justice--one that is highly politicized--offering glimmerings of the rule of law that, in her view, have become symbols of liberal transition. Its challenge to the prevailing assumptions about transitional periods makes this timely and provocative book essential reading for policymakers and scholars of revolution and new democracies.

Theorizing Transitional Justice

Theorizing Transitional Justice PDF Author: Claudio Corradetti
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317010868
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
This book addresses the theoretical underpinnings of the field of transitional justice, something that has hitherto been lacking both in study and practice. With the common goal of clarifying some of the theoretical profiles of transitional justice strategies, the study is organized along crucial intersections evaluating aspects connected to the genealogy, the nature, the scope and the most appropriate methodology for the study of transitional justice. The chapters also take up normative and political considerations pertaining to specific transitional instruments such as war crime tribunals, truth commissions, administrative purges, reparations, and historical commissions. Bringing together some of the most original writings from established experts as well as from promising young scholars in the field, the collection will be an essential resource for researchers, academics and policy-makers in Law, Philosophy, Politics, and Sociology.

New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding

New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding PDF Author: Edward Newman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Africa; Sierra Leone; Afghanistan; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Timor-Leste; Sri Lanka; Palestine; Israel; United Nations; Lebanon; Cambodia; Central America.