Transitional Justice and the Historical Abuses of Church and State

Interrogates the role of power and emotions in the responses of Western States and churches to their historical abuses.

James Gallen (Author)

9781316515549, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 March 2023

280 pages
23.5 x 15.5 x 2.5 cm, 0.76 kg

'This book offers a wide-ranging, critical analysis of the historical abuses of church and state in western societies within a transitional justice framework. Well-written and highly accessible, it is a timely and very important contribution to the literature. This book will be a key text for decades to come.' Anne-Marie McAlinden, Queen's University Belfast

In this book, James Gallen provides an in-depth evaluation of the responses of Western States and churches to their historical abuses from a transitional justice perspective. Using a comparative lens, this book examines the application of transitional justice to address and redress the past in Ireland, Australia, Canada, the United States and United Kingdom. It evaluates the use of public inquiries and truth commissions, litigation, reparations, apologies, and reconciliation in each context to address these abuses. Significantly, this novel analysis considers how power and public emotions influence, and often impede, transitional justice's ability to address historical-structural injustices. In addressing historical abuses, power fails to be redistributed and national and religious myths are not reconsidered, leading Gallen to conclude that the existing transitional justice efforts of states and churches remain an unrepentant form of justice. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

1. Introduction
2. Otherness and violence in states, Christianity, and institutions
3. Historical-Structural injustice
4. Power
5. Emotions and dealing with the past
6. Investigating historical-structural injustices
7. Litigation and historical-structural injustices
8. Reparations
9. Apologies
10. Reconciliation.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Law & society [LAQ], Church history [HRCC2]