THE SOCIALISATION OF TRANSITIONAL
JUSTICE: EXPANDING JUSTICE THEORIES
WITHIN THE FIELD
Brianne McGonigle Leyh*
Abstract
This article examines five conceptions of justice that have greatly influenced or shaped
transitional justice processes by touching on their appeal as well as the major criticisms
they face. It emphasises how the early conceptions of justice predominantly focused on
civil and political rights violations and elaborates upon the main critiques of this narrow
emphasis. The article then examines the arguments calling for a broader conception of
justice and expansion of the traditional transitional justice mandate, looking specifically
at recent calls for the facilitation of social and transformative justice. It explores whether
the proliferation of justice conceptions has strained the core notion of transitional
justice, making it too overstretched and all-encompassing. The aim of the article is to
explore the theoretical roles and values assigned to different justice conceptions within
transitional justice processes, as well as to shed light on the complex and changing
nature of transitional justice over the past few decades, leading to the socialisation of
transitional justice.
Keywords: Retributive; restorative; reparative; social and transformative justice;
transitional justice
1. INTRODUCTION
The question of how best to deal with a divisive history of collective violence and mass
victimhood is not new. 1 The growing belief that past harms that go unaddressed may
fuel future conflict helped spawn what is known as transitional justice. 2 Transitional
* Associate Professor, Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Utrecht University School of Law,
Utrecht, The Netherlands.
1
See K. Andrieu, Transitional Justice: A New Discipline in Human Rights, Online Encyclopedia of
Mass Violence, 18 January 2010.
2
B.A. Leebaw, The Irreconcilable Goals of Transitional Justice, 30(1) Human Rights Quarterly 96
(2008).
11 HR&ILD 1 (2017) 83