Scholars are invited to reflect upon the manner in which criminal prosecutions came to be assessed as types of reaction against massive human rights violations, within the variety of transitions and transitional justice approaches. The genealogy of transitional justice indicates that in the last three decades, the number of trials against former leaders of non-democratic regimes increased, whereas amnesties and impunity have been systematically challenged by the necessity of prosecuting human rights abuses. The present conference aims at dealing with country-cases as well as
with systematic, theoretical, and empirical approaches to criminal prosecutions and their effectiveness as transitional justice instruments. We invite theoretical, practical, and policy oriented papers examining the manner in which different countries have used criminal justice as a response to human rights abuses in non-democratic societies. Empirical studies on post-communist Central and Eastern Europe are particularly welcome.
Papers may address topics such as
* Legal and political constraints in convicting human rights abuses after dictatorships' breakdown;
* Attempts at incorporating international justice mechanisms into state and national criminal prosecutions;
* The extent to which transitional criminal justice contributes to the consolidation of the Rule of Law and/or to reconciliation/ social reconstruction efforts;
* The manner in which criminal prosecutions impact law reform in a broader sense;
* The way in which precedents of external intervention impact transitional
justice initiatives;
* The relationship existing between culturally patterned practices and transitional criminal justice;
* The role of the state and of civil society actors in the evolution of
transitional criminal justice;
The deadline for submitting the paper abstracts (max. 200 words, in English) is *30* *September 2010*. The paper proposals should be sent to: Raluca Grosescu, Head of the Public Policies Department, IICCMER ralucagrosescu@ yahoo.com
Scientific Council
Lavinia Stan, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada
Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland, USA
Joint-organizers:
Ruxandra Ivan, Faculty of Political Science, Bucharest University, ruxandra.ivan@ fspub.ro
Damiana Oþoiu, Faculty of Political Science, Bucharest University & Head of the Diaspora and Minorities Department, IICCMER
damiana.otoiu@ fspub.ro
Please quote 10 Academic Resources Daily in your application to this opportunity!
