杏吧论坛

Dr Denisa Kostovicova CBG.7.03

This course is available on the MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (杏吧论坛 & Columbia), MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (杏吧论坛 & Sciences Po), MSc in European and International Politics and Policy, MSc in European and International Politics and Policy (杏吧论坛 and Bocconi), MSc in European and International Politics and Policy (杏吧论坛 and Sciences Po), MSc in European and International Public Policy (杏吧论坛 and Bocconi), MSc in European and International Public Policy (杏吧论坛 and Sciences Po), MSc in Gender (Rights and Human Rights), MSc in Gender, Peace and Security, MSc in International Migration and Public Policy and MSc in International Migration and Public Policy (杏吧论坛 and Sciences Po). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access). In previous years we have been able to provide places for all students that apply but that may not continue to be the case.

The pursuit of justice in the aftermath of mass atrocity and gross human rights violations has become a norm in a globalised post-Cold War world. It rests on the premise that states and societies ought to engage with the difficult past in order to transition from conflict to peace. But, the limitations of transitional justice practices, such as war crimes trials, truth commissions, reparations and others, are now evident. Instead of promoting peace and reconciliation, they have often had the opposite impact: they have further divided communities, distorted the truth about suffering, and traumatised rather than dignified the victims. With a comparative focus on transitional justice practices in Europe and elsewhere, this course examines how the pursuit of post-conflict justice is theorised and tackles the puzzle of its unintended effects in societies transitioning from conflict and repressive rule.

The course starts with a review of transitional justice and reconciliation as fields of study and practice. Following the introductory part that relates the emergence of a global norm of transitional justice to the lessons from Europe’s history, the course proceeds with an examination of key mechanisms of transitional justice in various contexts: international trials, truth and reconciliation commissions, and lustrations. It then engages with more recent practices, such as the role of art and social