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Justice in Transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2006

Rhiana Chinapen  and
Richard Vernon
Rhiana Chinapen
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
Richard Vernon
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
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Abstract

Abstract. This paper questions both realist and restorative conceptions of truth commissions, to the extent that both of those conceptions neglect the internal links between truth commissions and criminal trials. Interpreting the requirements of retribution, responsibility and truth-telling, the paper argues that trials and truth commissions should be placed at points on a spectrum rather than in distinct categories, and that the circumstances of political transition explain the divergences in their respective practices. We may see truth commissions and trials as expressing the same aims of justice, though in contextually differentiated ways that modify both the subordinate principles required by the aims of justice and also their institutional expression.

Résumé. Cet article remet en question la conception réaliste et la conception réparatrice des commissions de vérité, dans la mesure où toutes les deux négligent les liens internes entre les commissions de vérité et les procès criminels. Interprétant les exigences de rétribution, de responsabilité et de véracité, l'article avance que les procès et les commissions de vérité devraient être situés en divers points du même spectre plutôt que dans des catégories distinctes et que les circonstances de transition politique expliquent les différences entre leurs pratiques respectives. On peut considérer les commissions de vérité et les procès comme traduisant une même “poursuite de la justice”, bien que les différences de contexte modifient dans chaque cas les principes subalternes qu'impose la recherche de la justice et, de ce fait, changent aussi leur expression institutionnelle.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 117 - 134
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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