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Full-Text Articles in Law
Dignity In The Service Of Democracy, Erin Daly
Dignity In The Service Of Democracy, Erin Daly
Erin Daly
At a broad level, perhaps the most noticeable trend in Latin American constitutional law is the increasing muscularity of constitutional tribunals. Throughout the region, particularly in South America, tribunals charged with interpreting their country’s constitution are increasingly asserting themselves and inserting themselves into public controversies, from abortion to same sex marriage to the rights of political association. This heightened judicial activity can come at a cost to democracy: typically, the more social issues are decided by unelected and unaccountable judges rather than through a political process, the less the people control the resolution of those issues. The more outcomes are …
Truth Skepticism: An Inquiry Into The Value Of Truth In Times Of Transition, Erin Daly
Truth Skepticism: An Inquiry Into The Value Of Truth In Times Of Transition, Erin Daly
Erin Daly
Truth commissions have become so fashionable in times of transition that one can readily recognize what might be called a ‘truth cascade.’ The commissions, and the reports they produce, are reputed to promote many of the goals at the heart of the transitional justice project: helping victims to heal, promoting accountability, drawing a bright line between the past and the present, promoting reconciliation and so forth. And yet, a closer look at the truth-seeking enterprise suggests that it may not be able to deliver on these promises. This article explores both the intrinsic and instrumental reasons why truth commissions may …
Too Many Questions, Too Few Answers: Reconciliation In Transitional Societies, Erin Daly, Jeremy Sarkin
Too Many Questions, Too Few Answers: Reconciliation In Transitional Societies, Erin Daly, Jeremy Sarkin
Erin Daly
Understanding reconciliation in times of political transition raises fundamental and ultimately unanswerable questions about the human condition. Talk of reconciliation invariably comes after there has been some gross violation of norms: widespread disappearances, killings, torture, and rape. Reconciliation necessarily conjures its antecedents and forces us to ask how men (and sometimes women) can visit such horrors upon one another. When we look at the face of evil, are we, as many people contend, seeing ourselves, or on the contrary are some people capable of evil in a way that others would never approach? Reconciliation is perhaps deeply compelling, however, because …
Reparations In South Africa: A Cautionary Tale, Erin Daly
Reparations In South Africa: A Cautionary Tale, Erin Daly
Erin Daly
The South African experience with reparations is an important object lesson for any major effort to seek reparations to the descendents of slaves in the United States. However, the aspect of the TRC's reparations plan that has proved most problematic is the recommendation for monetary payments to "victims" of gross human rights abuses. Although emphasizing the importance of reparations to the victims, the TRC failed to ensure that reparations would be paid. Like the victims’ movements in South Africa, the American movement for reparations for victims and descendants of slavery should a range of monetary as well as non-monetary forms …
Between Punitive And Reconstructive Justice: The Gacaca Courts In Rwanda, Erin Daly
Between Punitive And Reconstructive Justice: The Gacaca Courts In Rwanda, Erin Daly
Erin Daly
In the aftermath of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, in which almost a million people were killed by their fellow citizens within 3 months, the country was faced with the colossal task of bringing to justice hundreds of thousands of perpetrators while at the same time trying to rebuild the communities in which both the victims and the perpetrators had lived. This article argues that the regime of gacaca courts, though flawed in many ways, particularly from a western perspective, does nonetheless offer the potential for helping the communities within Rwanda to transform themselves. The form and structure of gacaca …
Transformative Justice: Charting A Path To Reconciliation, Erin Daly
Transformative Justice: Charting A Path To Reconciliation, Erin Daly
Erin Daly
When nations transition from oppressive and lawless regimes to democratic ones they face myriad challenges. As an anxious public and an impatient world look on, they must create new governing bodies, write new laws and repeal old ones, redefine the balance of private and public power, and organize elections, just to name a few of the daunting tasks. But perhaps the greatest challenge facing these nascent liberal governments is one that receives insufficient attention: if the values of the new government are to take root, the new leaders must also transform the culture in which they operate. This article argues …