PLSC-4360 : Transitional Justice

The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting. (Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting ) Explores the possibility of justice, civic repair and reconciliation in societies transitioning from a period of political violence and massive human rights violations. In the last three decades, many societies have made the hard decision to come to terms with past wrongs. Domestic and international human rights trials, amnesty laws, truth commissions, lustration, victim-centered reparations, and commemorative acts have become central to conflict resolution, peace-building and democratization processes. Throughout the course we will question what transitional justice means, how it has emerged as a distinctive field of study and policy-making, and whether or not transitional justice measures have lived up to their promise of truth, justice and reconciliation in post-conflict societies. We will look at transitional justice from multiple perspectives: (i) the sociology or memory; (ii) the politics of democratization and democratic consolidation; (iii) policy implications in a post-conflict context; and (iv) the representation of the struggle for justice in art and literature. The challenge we set for ourselves is to rethink our everyday notions of memory, truth, justice, reconciliation, and forgiveness in a critical light.