The International Studies Public Forum and Center for Global Peace & Conflict Studies present

"Reckoning with State-Sponsored Violence: Transitional Justice and the Challenge of Gray Zones"
with Bronwyn Leebaw, Associate Professor of Political Science, UC Riverside

Thursday, May 3, 2012
5:00-6:30 p.m.
Social Sciences Plaza A, Room 1100

How should countries reckon with systematic abuses and injustices committed under a prior regime? This controversial question is at the center of debates on transitional justice and reconciliation. Leebaw's talk builds on her book, Judging State-Sponsored Violence, Imagining Political Change, which reconsiders the legacies of two institutions that have profoundly influenced contemporary approaches to transitional justice: The Nuremberg Tribunal and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Whereas Nuremberg exemplifies the promise of legalism and international criminal justice, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has promoted restorative justice and truth commissions. She argues that the two frameworks share a common problem: Both rely on criminal justice strategies to investigate experiences of individual victims and perpetrators, which undermines their critical role as responses to systematic atrocities. She makes the case for an alternative approach to thinking about the critical role of transitional justice - one that emphasizes the importance of political judgment and addresses the “gray zones” of complicity and resistance. 

For further information, please contact Sandy Cushman, scushman@uci.edu or 949-824-3344