Transitional Justice. I conti con il passato

2009 ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Pier Paolo Portinaro

- Transitional justice refers to the admission of wrongdoing, the recognition of its effects and the acceptance of responsibility for those effects. It provides an alternative to vengeance and a measure of accountability for the perpetrators and justice for the victims by establishing truth. The article considers the different ways of taking account of the past (from direct retaliation to amnesty, from prosecution of perpetrators responsible for large-scale state brutality to public discussion about human rights abuse and shaping of collective memory) and focuses the emergence of the paradigma of restorative justice. In amending tragic historical immoralities, restitution, reparation, apology, and reconciliation replace a universal comprehensive standard of criminal justice with a negotiated justice among opposing parties in specific cases. Drawing on the discussion of some recent studies (Teitel, Elster, Barkan, Frei, Koenig) concerning the role of criminal trials, lustration policies and truth commissions in democratic transitions, the article attempts to outline even broader conclusions about a theory of transitional justice.

Author(s):  
Andrew Valls

In regime transitions, a number of mechanisms are utilized to memorialize the past and to reject the ideas associated with human rights abused of the prior regime. This is often done through truth commissions, apologies, memorials, museums, changes in place names, national holidays, and other symbolic measures. In the United States, some efforts along these lines have been undertaken, but on the whole they have been very limited and inadequate. In addition, many symbols and memorials associated with the past, such as Confederate monuments and the Confederate Battle Flag, continue to be displayed. Hence while some progress has been made on these issues, much more needs to be done.


Politeja ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2(65)) ◽  
pp. 189-204
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Marcol

The Role of Language in Releasing from Inherited Traumas. Negotiations of the Social Position of the Silesian Minority in Serbian Banat The aim of the paper is to show the dependence between language, collective memory (also post-memory) and sense of identity. This issue is analysed using the example of an ethnic minority living in the village of Ostojićevo (Banat, Serbia) called ‘Toutowie.’ Their ancestors came in the 19th century from Wisła (Silesian Cieszyn, Poland); they left their homes because of great hunger and were looking for jobs in Banat. Narratives about the past contain traumatic experiences of the past generations transmitted in the Silesian dialect and constituting communicative memory. At the same time, a new Polish national identity is being constructed, supported by institutions and authorities; it carries a new image of the world and creates a new cultural memory. This new identity – shaped on the basis of national categories – leads to changes of its self-identification and gives the opportunity to raise its social position in the multi-ethnic Banat community.


Author(s):  
William B. Meyer

If the average citizen's surroundings defined the national climate, then the United States grew markedly warmer and drier in the postwar decades. Migration continued to carry the center of population west and began pulling it southward as well. The growth of what came to be called the Sunbelt at the "Snowbelt's" expense passed a landmark in the early 1960s when California replaced New York as the most populous state. Another landmark was established in the early 1990s when Texas moved ahead of New York. In popular discussion, it was taken for granted that finding a change of climate was one of the motives for relocating as well as one of the results. It was not until 1954, though, that an American social scientist first seriously considered the possibility. The twentieth-century flow of Americans to the West Coast, the geographer Edward L. Ullman observed in that year, had no precedent in world history. It could not be explained by the theories of settlement that had worked well in the past, for a substantial share of it represented something entirely new, "the first large-scale in-migration to be drawn by the lure of a pleasant climate." If it was the first of its kind, it was unlikely to be the last. For a set of changes in American society, Ullman suggested, had transformed the economic role of climate. The key changes included a growth in the numbers of pensioned retirees; an increase in trade and service employment, much more "footloose" than agriculture or manufacturing was; developments in technology making manufacturing itself more footloose; and a great increase in mobility brought about by the automobile and the highway. All in one way or another had weakened the bonds of place and made Americans far freer than before to choose where to live. Whatever qualities made life in any spot particularly pleasant thus attracted migration more than in the past. Ullman grouped such qualities together as "amenities." They ranged from mountains to beaches to cultural attractions, but climate appeared to be the most important, not least because it was key to the enjoyment of many of the rest. Ullman did not suppose that all Americans desired the same climate. For most people, in this as in other respects, "where one was born and lives is the best place in the world, no matter how forsaken a hole it may appear to an outsider."


Humanities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Eyun Jennifer Kim

As cities become increasingly de-industrialized and emphasize building a sustainable future, we have seen an increase in the design of large-scale landscapes being incorporated into the urban fabric. The reconstruction of the Cheonggyecheon stream and park in Seoul, South Korea, is an example of this phenomenon. Since its completion in 2005, the city of Seoul has promoted the project as a restoration of its history and recreation of a collective memory of the site and historic stream from its geographic origins. However, this narrative of historic rebirth of a stream raises questions of authenticity, the selective emphasis of one history over another, and how this transformation of Seoul’s built environment may change the identity of the city’s culture and society. Using a mixture of direct observations of the park design, activities, and events held at the site, and interviews with project designers and former Seoul Metropolitan Government staff who worked on the project and Cheonggyecheon park visitors, this research examines the reconstruction of the Cheonggyecheon as simultaneously a recovery of and break with the past, and the representation of Seoul’s history, memory, and culture as performative functions of the design of the landscape and its activities. In the process, this new landscape offers a rewriting of the past and memory of the city as it redefines the identity of the city for its present and future.


1998 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-158
Author(s):  
Jörg Arnold ◽  
Emily Silverman

AbstractIn an initial summing up of this necessarily abbreviated and cursory report of findings, the first thing to recognise is that the countries examined in the study accorded different significance to the criminal law as a means for dealing with the past. The Eastern European countries, at any rate, appear to be largely in agreement with regard to the role of rehabilitation and compensation, although more comparative research into their realization in practice is required. With regard to the direct criminal prosecution and punishment of political and state-promoted crime, however, there is much less uniformity. This is clearly illustrated by the disparate criminal justice practices in the individual countries. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that criminal law plays no role whatsoever in accounting for the past.


2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Wittlinger

This article argues that German–Israeli reconciliation after 1945 has not been as exemplary as is often suggested. Drawing on key aspects which emerge from a discussion of relevant concepts in the first part of the article – transitional justice and reconciliation – it will show that Germany’s memory culture, as evidenced in the elite discourse, has indeed developed in a way that points to a successful reconciliation between the two countries. On the other hand, however, German regret emerged only reluctantly, was by and large confined to West Germany, and took a long time to establish itself formally, with emphasis on German suffering rather than suffering caused by Germans always playing an important role in German collective memory after 1945. It will also show that at grass-roots level, reconciliation between Germany and Israel is far from unproblematic. Apart from providing a critical assessment of the reconciliation between Germany and Israel after 1945, the article contributes to current academic literature on transitional justice, reconciliation and the role of memory which suggests that even though commemoration and micro-level reconciliation might be important, the geopolitical context in which reconciliation takes place and strategic security considerations also play a significant role.


1996 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Elmore

How can good educational practice move beyond pockets of excellence to reach a much greater proportion of students and educators? While many children and young adults in school districts and communities around the country have long benefited from the tremendous accomplishments of successful teachers, schools, and programs, replicating this success on a larger scale has proven to be a difficult and vexing issue. In this article, Richard Elmore addresses this problem by analyzing the role of school organization and incentive structures in thwarting large-scale adoption of innovative practices close to the "core" of educational practice. Elmore then reviews evidence from two attempts at large-scale reform in the past — the progressive movement and the National Science Foundation curriculum reform projects — to evaluate his claims that ambitious large-scale school reform efforts, under current conditions, will be ineffective and transient. He concludes with four detailed recommendations for addressing the issue of scale in improving practice in education.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 809-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Henham

AbstractThis article considers how sentencing might be re-conceptualised if restorative justice became a more integral part of the rationale for international criminal trials. More specifically, it focuses on issues of admissibility and proof; trial structure; procedural justice; the role of victims and trial professionals, and the role of judicial discretionary power in sentencing decisions. The paper concludes by suggesting that change is possible by utilising judicial discretion as a force for developing more restorative trial outcomes and dealing effectively with inconsistency, appeal and the enforcement of sentences. More broadly, such changes should be seen as an opportunity for international trial outcomes to engage more directly with the challenges of facilitating transitional justice in post-conflict states.


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