Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will analize the particular difficulties and challenges that the Colombian context imposes on the paradigm of transitional justice. It will focus on at least the following questions:
1. Is the transitional justice paradigm useful to address partial or fragmentary transitions, such as the current Colombian transition?
2. Is the transitional justice paradigm useful for dealing with pro-systemic actors, such as paramilitary groups?
3. What is the relation between the protection of victims' rights and the warrantee of non-recurrence? Is the protection of those rights enough to assure, by itself, the non-recurrence of atrocities?

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Having captured the imagination of academics and activists alike the experience of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has helped to make the idea of transitional justice a central theme in discussions over the building of democracy in post-authoritarian societies and in societies emerging from civil conflicts. This project attempts to review the role of transitional justice in the South African transition from apartheid in order to locate the experience of the TRC within a broader process of political and legal reconstruction. The paper argues that it is important to understand that these increasingly globalized institutions, such as TRCs and other constitutional institutions often play very specific roles in local contexts and suggests that any broader understanding of the role of law in democratic transitions needs to incorporate other important processes of political engagement in which the parameters and understandings of the new democratic order are negotiated.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper presents a test of elements of Power Transition Theory (PTT) through an examination of types of demographic transitions against civil war. It divides population transitions into nine types and, from PTT logic, derives testable hypotheses. It also tests elements of PTT's rival, Balance of Power Theory (BPT). Although the logic of PTT seems appropriate to testing at the substate level, the results are mixed. Most states plagued by ethnic civil wars have stable populations (i.e. no transitions), yet three types of transitions stand out. Even here, however, PTT predicts violence in only one of these three types of transitions. BPT fares a bit better.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper looks at the values inscribed in the language of transitional justice documents. I argue that there is a gap in values between those of these documents and those of contemporary human rights discourse.