Chapter 5 - Minimum Moral Thresholds at War’s End

Summary

This chapter explores the normative lessons offered by the structurally analogous descriptive and normative limitations of just war theory and transitional justice. Just war theory provides normative prescriptions for the onset, conduct during, ending, and aftermath of war. Transitional justice provides normative prescriptions for dealing with widespread human rights violations characteristically committed during conflict and/or periods of repression. Both just war theory and transitional justice provide normative prescriptions for profoundly non-ideal circumstances. Yet a yawning gap remains between the normative picture of just war and of transitional justice on the one hand, and the descriptive reality of contemporary conflicts and transitional justice practices on the other. To engage with the reality of each practice in a way that will prove actionable for its participants, new forms of normative guidance are needed.