INTRODUCTION

In this chapter I discuss some thirty-odd further cases of transitional justice. With three exceptions, they all took place in transitions to democracy in the twentieth century. The list of cases is not complete, notably because of the omission of recent and ongoing Asian processes (Cambodia, East Timor, and South Korea). Also, some factual statements in the text may need to be corrected and updated in the light of continuous developments. In future studies of the topic, the unfolding process of transitional justice in Iraq may warrant an extensive discussion that I cannot offer here. I believe, however, that together with the two previous chapters, the cases I do consider provide sufficient material for the conceptual and causal analyses in Part II.

There are no important episodes of transitional justice in new democracies between the Athenian episodes and the mid–twentieth century. Contrary to appearances, perhaps, the French Revolution did not punish the former elites for past wrongdoings, nor compensate the peasantry for what they had suffered. The charges laid against the aristocrats during the Terror were based on what they had done after the Revolution, namely, conspiring with foreign countries and planning an invasion of France. It is also inaccurate to say that the abolition of feudal dues was a “reparation” of past injustice. The decrees of August 4, 1789, aimed at eliminating injustice for the future, without any additional compensation for past injustice.