Contested spaces of transitional justice: legal empowerment in global post-conflict contexts revisited

Abstract

This article critically examines the concept of legal empowerment as it has been used with reference to transitional justice, mapping its rise and impact based on a selection of case studies. In recent decades, international transitional justice advocacy has evolved dramatically, with practice increasingly emphasising the centrality of criminal accountability for violence, precisely as more holistic approaches have emerged that have broadened the remit of transitional justice. Post-conflict justice advocates have thus become professionalised transitional justice entrepreneurs working on issues such as democratic transitions, rule of law and human rights. A legal empowerment discourse has emerged in a number of scholarly debates that discuss legalistic and normative issues related to the implementation of retributive and restorative justice mechanisms. In theory, the concept of legal empowerment addresses the issue of social exclusion in transitions, increasing the rights of the marginalised. In practice, however, legal empowerment has disappointed and raises several issues around its performance that are scrutinised in this article. Drawing on case studies in Nepal, Tunisia and Bosnia-Herzegovina the authors analyse issues related to agency, institutions and structure, and argue for a needs-centred, participatory approach in place of the rights-based legal empowerment concept.

What Do We Know about Legal Empowerment? Mapping the Evidence

“…Evaluations and other types of evidence published after that time are not included in this review. Subsequent studies not incorporated into this review include Ramanujam and Anstis (2013) (using Cambodia as a case study to show links between legal empowerment and equitable economic growth); Kurze et al (2015), p. 260 (examining use and impact of legal empowerment with reference to transitional justice through a series of case studies). 16 For studies that covered more than one legal empowerment intervention-whether across several countries or multiple distinct efforts in one nation-the impacts of each intervention are coded separately.…”

Transformative Justice in Practice: Reflections on the Pastoral Land Commission During Brazil’s Political Transition

“…Identifying the relationship and balance between legal processes on the one hand and social and political processes for change on the other is key however, and may be assisted by a strategic-and use-oriented principle where the law is drawn on to the extent that it is useful in concrete settings and when it contributes to advancing broader social and political processes and goals. Integrating these approaches may help address some of the limitations of legal empowerment approaches in transitional settings (Kurze et al 2015;Waldorf 2019) while expanding the range of tools available to transformative justice practitioners engaged in community work, such as where the law can be harnessed to address labour rights issues or to assist communities in securing access to resources and services. Some final reflections are offered here about how the kinds of activities or practices identified may be relevant beyond rural settings.…”

Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping as a Transformative Justice Concept: Civilian Protection and Everyday Justice in the Bangsamoro

“…To go beyond dualistic retributive-versus-restorative justice views, Lambourne (2009) argues for a transformative model that equally recognizes psychosocial (truth), legal, socioeconomic, and political dimensions of justice in peacebuilding processes. Similarly, others have suggested need-oriented and participatory approaches (Kurze et al 2015) concerned with answering "whose justice" (Lundy and McGovern 2008, 265) must be of utmost concern in localized peacebuilding efforts.…”