Transitional Justice Essay

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Transitional justice refers to the processes that address state crimes during a society’s transition from violent conflict or authoritarian rule (Anderlini, Conaway & Kays, 2004). Such mechanism aims at bringing closure of conflicts, healing the wounds of individuals and society, preventing human rights violations from repeating, and rebuilding confidence in the new judicial and political system (Anderlini et al., 2014).
Among East Asian new democracies, South Korea is arguably the most successful case in dealing with the previous regime after the democratic transition. In the historical 1996 trial, two former presidents were convicted of treasons for launching the December 12 coup of 1979 and ordering the brutal repression of the Kwangju …show more content…

Such mechanisms aimed at bringing closure of conflicts, healing the wounds of individual and society, preventing human rights abuses from repeating, and instilling trusts in the new judicial and political systems (Anderlini et al., 2004). Despite being on the opposite ends of the spectrum, the pursuit of justice and reconciliation are both an end to the cycles of conflicts (Anderlini et al., 2004). While retributive justice lays stress on punishment of wrongdoings, reparations and compensations (Elster, 2006), reconciliation could refer to remorse, apology, a political form of consensus, or a long-term process of psychological rebuilding within the community (Anderlini et al., …show more content…

Victims and citizens have the right to know the truth (Han, 2005). Criminal and administrative investigations serve as a legal response that provide spaces for truth inquiry, so that retribution and restoration could be carried out based on confirmed facts (Elster, 2006). In this sense, recognition, at least to a certain extent, of past wrongs is an indispensable part of transitional justice (Han, 2005). Social knowledge of the past is simultaneously reconstructed as the former regime being rejected (Anderlini et al., 2004). In other words, law and legal processes have a profound impact on shaping collective memory, which further contributes to reaching political consensus under the new politics (Teitel,

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