Transitional Justice (POL 385)
This course is about justice (broadly understood) that takes places in the context of a transition (also broadly understood) from one regime to another. Transitional justice policies are a new regime’s attempts to rectify or deal with injustices or crimes perpetrated under the previous regime. For example, if you are in charge of post-Nazi Germany, post-Communist Bulgaria, or post-Baath Iraq, what do you do with all the Nazis, Communists, or Baathists who are still around? How do you decide what ought to be done? What are your constraints and options for dealing with them, and what difference does it make what you do? If transitional justice policies are the central variable, we are interested in definitions, causes, conditions, constraints, and consequences.
The course is organized topically and around important cases between World War II and the present. The topics and reading assignments in the syllabus provide a guideline that may be altered as the semester progresses. The following books are available for purchase at the bookstore:
Elster, Jon. Closing the Books
Marrus, The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial 1945-46
Beigbeder, Yves, Judging War Criminals
Schlink, Bernhard The Reader
Fuller, Lon The Morality of Law
There are also many books and selections on hard copy reserve at the library. For the purposes of paper assignments, these books are a good start, but both of us can help you develop extensive bibliographies on most topics related to transitional justice, so ask us.
Assignments
There will be two long paper assignments, the first due in week 6, the second at the end of the semester. Assignment details will be provided. Students will periodically be assigned to take the lead in conference, i.e. to be responsible for particular books, chapters, or articles. There may also be shorter written assignments as appropriate.
Schedule of readings
Week 1 (Jan 23/25) – Intro
Machiavelli, Prince 5-8; Discourses I:26, III:1,3,7 (17-31, 131-2, 189-195)
Walzer, Michael. Regicide and Revolution, Chs. 1 & 3 (pp 1-7, 35-46)
Orwell, George. “War Guilt,” “Revenge is Sour” online, or Murphy’s website
Elster, Jon. Closing the Books (3-24, 47-76)
Fuller, Lon. “Problem of the Grudge Informer” in The Morality of Law (245-253)
Week 2 (Jan 30/Feb 1) – Nuremberg
Marrus, The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial 1945-46
Week 3 – Nuremberg and More
Maugham, U.N.O. and War Crimes (w/ Postcript by Lord Hankey) Ch 1 & Postscript (17-24, 110-133)
Seberova, Milena A Czech Trilogy, Ch 10 “Retribution: Proceedings against Ravensbruck War Criminals” (116-128)
Herz, John “Denazification and Related Policies” in From Dictatorship to Democracy (15-38)
Herf, Jeffrey Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in Two Germanys Chs. 4 & 7 (69-105, 201-266)
Week 4 – Other Post-War Europe (Holland)
Mason, Henry The Purge of Dutch Quislings: Emergency Justice in the Netherlands
Romijn, Peter “’Restoration of Confidence’: The Purge of Local Government in the Netherlands as a Problem of Postwar Reconstruction” in Deak, Gross & Judt The Politics of Retribution in Europe (173-193)
Week 5 – Law
Hart, H.L.A. The Concept of Law (Selections, possibly 1-50, 155-184, 213-237)
Fuller, Lon The Morality of Law (3-32, 95-186 selections)
Shklar, Judith Legalism: Law, Morals, and Political Trials (111-224)
Week 6 – TJ and Japanese & German Transitions
Beigbeder, Yves Judging War Criminals “Nuremberg Precedent,” “Tokyo Trial” (38-75)
Piccigallo, Philip The Japanese on Trial (xi-xv, 91-142, 175-185)
Montgomery, John Forced to be Free: The Artificial Revolution in Germany and Japan (1-125, 172-3)
Week 7 – TJ and Transitions, continued
Montgomery (cont.)
Pendas, Devin “The Boger Syndrome: Torture vs. Genocide in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial”
Eastwood, Alexis Dudden “Theaters of Legality: Torture on Trial, Soul, 1912-1914”
(Pendas & Eastwood available here: http://internationalstudies.uchicago.edu/torture/schedule.html)
Schlink, Bernhard The Reader
Week 8 – Frameworks
Kritz, ed. Transitional Justice, Vol. I (57-116, 121-154) Articles by O’Donnell & Schmitter, Huntington, Pion-Berlin, Huyse, Linz, Herz, Teitel
Borneman, John Settling Accounts: Violence, Justice, and Accountability in Postsocialist Europe (1-25)
Elster, Jon Closing the Books: Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective (79-135)
Week 9 – Restitution, Reparations, and Non-Retributive Justice
Verdery, Katherine “The Elasticity of Land: Problems of Property Restitution in Transylvania” in Slavic Review 53 (1994)
“A Forum on Restitution” East European Constitutional Review, Summer 1993, (30-40)
Kritz, ed. Transitional Justice, Vol. II “Czech Lustration” (544-568)
Misztal, Barbara “How Not to Deal with the Past” Archives Europeennes De Sociologie
40:1, 1999.
Week 10 – International Justice after the Nuremberg Precedent
Arendt, Hannah “From ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’” in The Portable Arendt (313-389)
Bass, Gary Stay the Hand of Vengeance Ch. 6 (206-276)
Week 11 – International Tribunals, present day
Beigbeder, Yves Judging War Criminals Chs. 8-9 (146-185)
Akhavan, “The ICTR: The Politics and Pragmatics of Punishment” American J. of International Law, Vol. 95, No 1 (Jan 2001), pp 7-31. JSTOR
Amann, “Prosecutor vs. Akayesu” American J. of International Law, Vol. 93, No 1 (Jan 1999) pp 195-199 JSTOR
Websites of ICTY, ICTR, Background, Legal Documents, Case Information Sheets, etc.
Week 12 – Domestic Trials, Argentina
Nino, Carlos Radical Evil on Trial (3-106)
Kritz, Neil, ed. Transitional Justice, Vol. 2 “Argentina” (332-375)
Week 13 – Truth Commissions, South African TRC
“Nunca Mas” in Kritz, ed. Transitional Justice, Vol. 3 (3-47)
Rotberg & Thomson, Truth v. Justice; The Morality of Truth Commissions Selected Chs., possibly 1-4, 10, 12.
Gibson, James Overcoming Apartheid, Chs. 1, 9 (1-27, 328-346)