Land and the limits of liberal legalism: property, transitional justice and non-reformist reforms in post-apartheid South Africa

SUMMARY Critical scholarship on transitional justice, in Africa and globally, has drawn attention both to limits of liberalism and legalism (such as inattention to structural injustices) and to normatively more expansive – transformative, and even revolutionary – approaches to justice. Focusing particularly on South Africa, this debate piece considers the roles of liberal property relations and conceptions of the rule of law in producing and maintaining injustices related to land and property in (post-)transitional societies in Africa and beyond. Moreover, the extent to which transitional justice might contribute to revolutionary aspirations of overcoming capitalist social and economic relations (as espoused, at least rhetorically, by liberation movements throughout Africa) is considered. It is suggested that while this is unlikely, non-reformist reforms offer one avenue by which more expansive (transformative or revolutionary) goals might be pursued, in part, in and through transitional justice.