Is Legalism always the Best Approach? Between an Atomistic and Holistic Approach to Post-Conflict Societies
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Nov 14, 2019
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Abstract
This paper is based on the premise that an overreliance on law in transitional justice fails to sufficiently address the long-term aims of healing and reconciliation, particularly in post-conflict societies. As a result of transitional justice’s political, international and institutional character in the form of legalism, other viable mechanisms are restricted. The key issue revolves around the ownership of any process and the failure of transitional justice to sufficiently consider aims outside retributive justice and the legitimacy of the state post-conflict. Focusing on legalism’s above characteristics, this paper considers the practical problems that legal dominance creates and discusses the quasi-judicial alternatives of gacaca and Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, before taking into account the practices in post-Communist Eastern Europe.
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Keywords
International criminal lawTransitional justiceBosniaGacacaLegalism
References
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Arriaza, Laura, and Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Social reconstruction as a local process, 2.2 Int’l J. Transitional Just. 152 (2008).
Biserko, Sonja, A look into the past means a step towards the future, Bosnian Institute (Oct.–Dec. 2004), http://www.bosnia.org.uk/bosrep/report_format.cfm?articleid=1154&reportid=166 (last visited Jan. 2, 2018).
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Davis, Michael, What punishment for the murder of 10,000? 16.2 Res Publica 101 (2010).
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Gordon, Gregory S., Toward an international criminal procedure: Due process aspirations and limitations, 45 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 635 (2006–2007).
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Harris, D. J., Cases and Materials on International Law (2004).
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Lundy, Patricia, and Mark McGovern, Whose justice? Rethinking transitional justice from the bottom up, 35.2 J. L. & Soc. 265 (2008).
McAdams, A. James, Transitional justice: The issue that won’t go away, 5.2 Int’l J. Transitional Just. 304 (2011).
McEvoy, Kieran, Beyond legalism: Towards a thicker understanding of transitional justice, 34.4 J. L. & Soc. 411 (2007).
Ohlin, Jens David, A meta-theory of international criminal procedure: Vindicating the rule of law, 14 UCLA J. Int’l L. & Foreign Aff. 77 (2009).
Rettig, Max, Gacaca: Truth, justice, and reconciliation in post-conflict Rwanda? 51.3 Afr. Stud. Rev. 25 (2008).
Reyntjens, Filip, Rwanda, ten years on: From genocide to dictatorship, 103.411 Afr. Aff. 177 (2004).
Schabas, William A., Genocide trials and Gacaca courts, 3.4 J. Int’l Crim. Just. 879 (2005).
Sivac-Bryant, Sebina, The Omarska Memorial Project Project as an example of how transitional justice interventions can produce hidden harms, 9 Int’l J. Transitional Just. 170 (2015).
Smeulers, Alette, Punishing the enemies of all mankind, 21.4 Leiden J. Int’l L. 971 (2008).
U.N.S.C., Secretary general report on rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and postconflict societies, U.N. Doc. S/2004/616 (Aug. 23, 2004).
Vasallo, Mark, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: General considerations and a critical comparison of the commissions of Chile and El Salvador, 33 U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. 153 (2002).
Waterfield, Bruno, US envoy Richard Holbrooke ‘did’ offer Radovan Karadzic immunity, The Telegraph (Mar. 23, 2009), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5039381/US-envoy-Richard-Holbrooke-did-offer-Radovan-Karadzic-immunity.html (last visited Jan. 2, 2018).
Wierzynska, Aneta, Consolidating democracy through transitional justice: Rwanda’s gacaca courts, 79.5 NYU L. Rev. 1934 (2004).
Wippman, David, Atrocities, deterrence, and the limits of international justice, 23.2 Fordham Int’l L. J. 473 (1999).
Zuvela, Maja, Srebrenica buries 127 victims of massacre, Serbs absent over genocide denial, Reuters (July 11, 2016), https://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN0ZR1IC (last visited Jan. 2, 2018).
Cases
Application of the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), Oral Pleadings, ICJ Rep., 53 (March 7, 2006).
Arriaza, Laura, and Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Social reconstruction as a local process, 2.2 Int’l J. Transitional Just. 152 (2008).
Biserko, Sonja, A look into the past means a step towards the future, Bosnian Institute (Oct.–Dec. 2004), http://www.bosnia.org.uk/bosrep/report_format.cfm?articleid=1154&reportid=166 (last visited Jan. 2, 2018).
Corey, Allison, and Sandra F. Joireman, Retributive justice: The Gacaca courts in Rwanda, 103.410 Afr. Aff. 73 (2004).
Daly, Erin, Between punitive and reconstructive justice: The Gacaca courts in Rwanda, 34 NYU J. Int’l L. & Pol. 356 (2001–2002).
Davis, Michael, What punishment for the murder of 10,000? 16.2 Res Publica 101 (2010).
Eminović, Ensar, Ruski veto je geto, Al Jazeera Balkans (July 13, 2015), http://balkans.aljazeera.net/vijesti/ruski-veto-je-geto (last visited Jan. 2, 2018).
Gordon, Gregory S., Toward an international criminal procedure: Due process aspirations and limitations, 45 Colum. J. Transnat’l L. 635 (2006–2007).
Hafner, Donald L., and Elizabeth B. L. King, Beyond traditional notions of transitional justice: How trials, truth commissions, and other tools for accountability can and should work together, 30 B.C. Int’l & Comp. L. Rev. 91 (2007), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr/vol30/iss1/6 (last visited Jan. 2, 2018).
Harris, D. J., Cases and Materials on International Law (2004).
Hazan, Pierre, The Revolution by the ICTY: The concept of justice in wartime, 2.2 J. Int’l Crim. Just. 533 (2004).
Less, Timothy, The next Balkan wars, New Statesman (June 6, 2016), https://www.newstatesman.com/world/2016/06/next-balkan-wars (last visited Jan. 2, 2018).
Lundy, Patricia, and Mark McGovern, Whose justice? Rethinking transitional justice from the bottom up, 35.2 J. L. & Soc. 265 (2008).
McAdams, A. James, Transitional justice: The issue that won’t go away, 5.2 Int’l J. Transitional Just. 304 (2011).
McEvoy, Kieran, Beyond legalism: Towards a thicker understanding of transitional justice, 34.4 J. L. & Soc. 411 (2007).
Ohlin, Jens David, A meta-theory of international criminal procedure: Vindicating the rule of law, 14 UCLA J. Int’l L. & Foreign Aff. 77 (2009).
Rettig, Max, Gacaca: Truth, justice, and reconciliation in post-conflict Rwanda? 51.3 Afr. Stud. Rev. 25 (2008).
Reyntjens, Filip, Rwanda, ten years on: From genocide to dictatorship, 103.411 Afr. Aff. 177 (2004).
Schabas, William A., Genocide trials and Gacaca courts, 3.4 J. Int’l Crim. Just. 879 (2005).
Sivac-Bryant, Sebina, The Omarska Memorial Project Project as an example of how transitional justice interventions can produce hidden harms, 9 Int’l J. Transitional Just. 170 (2015).
Smeulers, Alette, Punishing the enemies of all mankind, 21.4 Leiden J. Int’l L. 971 (2008).
U.N.S.C., Secretary general report on rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and postconflict societies, U.N. Doc. S/2004/616 (Aug. 23, 2004).
Vasallo, Mark, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: General considerations and a critical comparison of the commissions of Chile and El Salvador, 33 U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. 153 (2002).
Waterfield, Bruno, US envoy Richard Holbrooke ‘did’ offer Radovan Karadzic immunity, The Telegraph (Mar. 23, 2009), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5039381/US-envoy-Richard-Holbrooke-did-offer-Radovan-Karadzic-immunity.html (last visited Jan. 2, 2018).
Wierzynska, Aneta, Consolidating democracy through transitional justice: Rwanda’s gacaca courts, 79.5 NYU L. Rev. 1934 (2004).
Wippman, David, Atrocities, deterrence, and the limits of international justice, 23.2 Fordham Int’l L. J. 473 (1999).
Zuvela, Maja, Srebrenica buries 127 victims of massacre, Serbs absent over genocide denial, Reuters (July 11, 2016), https://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN0ZR1IC (last visited Jan. 2, 2018).
Cases
Application of the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro), Oral Pleadings, ICJ Rep., 53 (March 7, 2006).
How to Cite
Ademović , J. (2019). Is Legalism always the Best Approach? Between an Atomistic and Holistic Approach to Post-Conflict Societies. International Review of Law, 2018(2&3). https://doi.org/10.29117/irl.2018.0017
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Section
Articles in English