Transitional Justice Comes of Age: Enduring Lessons and Challenges

Abstract

The study and practice of transitional justice analyzes policy choices made by regimes emerging from armed conflict and/or authoritarian rule with regard to accountability for past abuses, stability, reform, and democratization. Transitional justice emerged as a policy problem and subject of study during political transitions from dictatorships in the late 1970s in Southern European countries such as Greece and Spain, and, more recently, evolved dramatically with the transitions in Latin America and Eastern Europe in countries ranging from Argentina and Guatemala to Poland and Lithuania.1 Most literature on the subject starts with a discussion of states emerging from authoritarian rule, civil