Reconceptualising Transitional Justice: The Latin American Experience

Abstract

Transitional justice (TJ) is now a crowded field. Two things are clear: Impact is key and social-science insights are indispensable. Latin America pioneered the old TJ repertoire; truth-telling and amnesty. Today the region is pioneering local challenges to impunity. This paper presents new thinking on reconceptualising TJ. What do we know about how formal and informal TJMs – trials, truth commissions, reparations, amnesties – have contributed to peace and democracy? How have these transitional justice mechanisms contributed to the observed regional shift from impunity to accountability? In which ways does the timing and sequencing of TJ efforts matter? This paper tests out new methodological and practical suggestions about producing knowledge for and from the new TJ in Latin America.