Throughout this chapter, I will draw on the Just War tradition, especially the jus post bellum branch of that tradition, for guidance about transitional justice today. Transitional justice concerns situations where a State, or a people, tries to move from a conflict situation to a post-conflict situation. On its face, transitional justice shares much in common with the jus post bellum. Indeed, retribution, reparation, and restitution are all recognized components of transitional justice and also of the jus post bellum. I shall draw on sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century writings about jus post bellum to help us reach normative principles that will also be applicable to transitional justice.

I will continue the efforts in the last chapter to offer an account of some of the most important principles underpinning retributive or deterrent justice during transition – showing that not all strategies that promote peace are worth pursuing, especially when pursuit of peace means that justice will not be had. In this sense, I will defend the strategy of only pursuing a “just peace.” And I will indicate how best to understand justice in transitional settings, especially where atrocities have ravaged a political community. Consideration of transitional justice must inform considerations of how to achieve lasting peace, just as much as considerations of peace must be accompanied by considerations of how to minimize the adverse effect on rights when peace is pursued.