Human Rights and Mass Atrocities: Revisiting Transitional Justice

Studies related to transitional justice (TJ) are revisited with a focus on human rights and mass atrocities. Teitel states that TJ is different from normal justice due to the impact of disparate political contexts. According to Maguire, the US approach to the several layers of the Nuremberg trials was a matter of strategic legalism, that is, law and judicial process put at the service of other, political objectives. Olsen et al. argue that TJ enhances the likelihood of improvements in democracy and human rights in the region. The African developments in the field of transitional justice after the end of Cold War that are summarized in de Ycaza and Schabas. Use of the principle of universal jurisdiction to go after torturers or others who engage in certain alleged crimes under international law has provoked a backlash not only in Spain, but also Belgium and the Middle East.