Transitional Justice

Course outline

There has been an increasing interest among human rights scholars and activists in the issue of so called “transitional justice”. Transitional justice has to do with situations in which a previously authoritarian regime has given way to a democratic one, and the new democracy is faced with the problem of how to address the human rights abuses of its predecessor.

Transitional societies necessarily face with the past in general, and with the legacy of human rights violations in the previous regime in particular. The way of dealing with the past very much depends on the power relations of the time when the transition towards democracy starts. The most radical revolutionary way of transition is the violent overthrow or collapse of the repressive regime, when there is a clear victory of the new forces over the old order. Democracy may also arrive from an internal initiative of reformed forces of the past regime, or appear as a result of a joint action or a negotiated settlement between the governing and the opposition groups. The lectures will discuss how the different types of transitions affect the means used to deal with the past.

Through presentations, case studies and discussions, the students will get a comparative perspective on the different models of transitional justice.  A brief outline for the general discussions of the philosophical and practical issues related to achieving justice in evolving societies will be provided.

The different models of transitional justice, like the so called “Amnesia Model” used by Spain after the fall off Franco regime, the “Selective Punishment Model” which was implemented in Greece, the “Historical Clarification Model” of Guatemala, and the “Mixed Memory and Punishment Model” of South Africa will be discussed in detail. The course aims to analyze and compare the methods used in Southern Europe in the seventies and the eighties in South America after the collapse of dictatorships, in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, as well as the one in South Africa after the apartheid regime.

The lectures have a forward looking approach, as far as even today a large number of countries are facing the problem of transitional societies, and are seeking reasonable and fair methods to deal with the legacy of the past.

Competences

The primary objective of the course is to enable the participants to get a proper understanding of a complex problem, which involves legal, ethical, social and political perspectives.

COMPULSORY READINGS

  • Melissa S Williams, Rosemary Nagy, Jon Elster: Transitional Justice. Nomos LI. New York University Press 2012.
  • Lavinia Stan (ed.) Transitional Justice in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Reckoning with the communist past. Routledge London 2009.
  • Barrett, Elizabeth–Hack, Péter–Munkácsi, Ágnes: ‘Lustration as Political Competition: Vetting in Hungary’. 260–307. In: Alexander Meyer-Rieckh–Pablo de Greiff, (eds.): Justice as Prevention: Vetting Public Employees in Transitional Societies. New York: Social Science Research Council, 2007.
  • Hack Péter: Transitional Justice. = The Transformation of the Hungarian Legal Order 1985-2005. András Jakab, Péter Takács, Allan F. Tatham (ed.) The Nederlands, Kluwer Law International, 2007. 257-271.
  • Roth-Arriaza, Naomi – Mariezcurrena, Javier (ed.): Transitional justice int he Twenty-First Century. Beyond Truth versus Justice. Cambridge University Press 2006.

RECOMMENDED READINGS

  • Barahona de Brito, Alexandra–Gonzalés Enríquez, Carmen–Aguilar, Paloma (eds.): The Politics of Memory and Democratization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Alexander Meyer-Rieckh–Pablo de Greiff, (eds.): Justice as Prevention: Vetting Public Employees in Transitional Societies. New York: Social Science Research Council, 2007. 522–544.
  • Elster, Jon: Memory and Transitional Justice. Available http://web.mit.edu/rpeters/papers/elster_memory.pdf
  • Garrett, A. Stephen: Models of Transitional Justice – A Comparative Analysis. International Studies Association 41st Annual Convention, Los Angeles, CA. March 14–18, 2000. www.ciaonet.org/isa/gas02/
  • Neil Kritz, (ed.), Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes. Vol. I.-III. Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press, 1995.

LECTURER

Péter Hack

Documents

Cím Fájlnév Méret
Cím Fájlnév Méret
RS-ENG RS-Eng.pdf 372.86 KB
Hayner_fifteen Hayner_Fifteen truth commissions (1).pdf 1.79 MB
III. TJ_HR_ELTE_III.docx 131.63 KB
I. TJ_HR_ELTE_I.docx 274.45 KB
Garett TJ Modells Garett TJ Modells.doc 133 KB
VI. TJ_HR_ELTE_IV.docx 45.6 KB
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE Peter_Hack_-_Transitional_Justice[1].pdf 96.12 KB
Nir Eisikovits Nir Eisikovits_TJ.docx 161.02 KB
II. TJ_HR_ELTE_II.docx 64.08 KB
Slide_1 Lecture_1_2019.pptx 9.69 MB
Slide_2 Lecture_2_2019.pptx 1.33 MB
file_Slide3_Slide4_reader Transitional Justice (JP28-JU, JTI_JP28-JU, 2018_19_2)Docs_.zip 34.74 MB