Transitional justice in balance

About this book

"This volume offers new insights and perspectives, seeking to answer the crucial questions: How does one judge or evaluate transitional justice?' The authors have made an important addition to empirically grounded theory of transitional justice. This highly readable volume will be accessible to scholarly audiences in diverse disciplines, as well as to academic, general audiences, including journalists, policy analysts, and all those interested in foreign affairs and justice issues."--Ruti Teitel, Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law, New York Law School. In the first project of its kind to compare multiple combinations of mechanisms across regions, countries and time, Transitional Justice in Balance: Comparing Processes, Weighing Efficacy systematically analyzes the claims made in the literature using a vast array of data, which the authors have assembled in the Transitional Justice Data Base. Trials, truth commissions, amnesties, reparations, and justice policies-- the main focus of the literature to date--are among the 854 transitional justice mechanisms, Which were implemented in 161 countries from 1970 to 2007 and included in this database. The authors use the database to explore the adoption of transitional justice and its defectiveness in achieving its primary goals of strengthening democracy and reducing human rights violations. This book summarizes the finding s and develops a new theoretical approach to transitional justice, grounded in cross-national analysis. --Book Jacket.