Judging State-Sponsored Violence, Imagining Political Change

Offers a new way to think about the legacies of two institutions - the Nuremberg Trials and South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Bronwyn Leebaw (Author)

9780521169776, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 April 2011

222 pages
22.7 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.36 kg

"Bronwyn Leebaw has written a superb book on a subject of fundamental importance: how we address state-sponsored violence. Her argument, built around an especially illuminating study and critique of the Nuremberg Trials and the Truth and Reconciliation process in South Africa, shows the achievements and limits of their approaches, and points to alternative strategies. Leebaw takes both institutions and their norms seriously, and her book masterfully weaves the two together to produce an account that is deeply informed by the realities of institutional settings and by the norms of justice that are bound up with them. This is a truly exceptional study!"

- J. William Booth
Department of Political Science
Vanderbilt University

How should state-sponsored atrocities be judged and remembered? This controversial question animates contemporary debates on transitional justice and reconciliation. This book reconsiders the legacies of two institutions that transformed the theory and practice of transitional justice. Whereas the Nuremberg Trials exemplified the promise of legalism and international criminal justice, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission promoted restorative justice and truth commissions. Leebaw argues that the two frameworks share a common problem: both rely on criminal justice strategies to investigate experiences of individual victims and perpetrators, which undermines their critical role as responses to systematic atrocities. Drawing on the work of influential transitional justice institutions and thinkers such as Judith Shklar, Hannah Arendt, José Zalaquett and Desmond Tutu, Leebaw offers a new approach to thinking about the critical role of transitional justice – one that emphasizes the importance of political judgment and investigations that examine complicity in, and resistance to, systematic atrocities.

1. Introduction: transitional justice and the 'gray zone'
2. Human rights legalism and the legacy of Nuremberg
3. A different kind of justice: South Africa's alternative to legalism
4. Political judgment and transitional justice: actors and spectators
5. Rethinking restorative justice
6. Remembering resistance
7. Conclusion: the shadows of the past.

Subject Areas: Criminal justice law [LNFB], Criminal law & procedure [LNF], International humanitarian law [LBBS], Law [L], Politics & government [JP]