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Lixinski, Lucas --- "A critical mapping of transitional justice in Latin America" [2017] ELECD 904; in Dixon, Rosalind; Ginsburg, Tom (eds), "Comparative Constitutional Law in Latin America" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 87

Book Title: Comparative Constitutional Law in Latin America

Editor(s): Dixon, Rosalind; Ginsburg, Tom

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781785369209

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: A critical mapping of transitional justice in Latin America

Author(s): Lixinski, Lucas

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

The chapter examines the diversity of transitional justice architectures in Latin America. While there is increased pressure to move towards anti-impunity and criminalization as responses to past atrocity in the region, other solutions have been adopted, and are still in place; these include amnesties, on the one hand, and memorialization and reparation processes, on the other. These three archetypes of transitional justice (amnesties; memorialization and reparations; and criminal prosecutions) can be explained by different political and historical contingencies across different countries. International justice projects have pushed for increasing use of criminal law measures in the context of transition, to the point where other measures are either deemed illegal, or are eclipsed by the focus on prosecutions. This focus, I argue, eclipses the politics of transition, and in doing so prevents countries from addressing the structural causes of the original instability. Keywords: transitional justice, Plan Condor, Inter-American Court, amnesties, memory, prosecutions