Too Long a Sacrifice? Post-Transitional Justice and the Afterlives of Authoritarianism

In a field that of late appears beset by crises of confidence, this essay reviews three books that send transitional justice scholarship back to basics. The focus in the books on post-authoritarian settings sheds light on the effects of time on transitional justice expectations, actions and futures. The books also offer rear-view mirror vantage points on the assumptions, teleological and otherwise, that informed early praxis in the field. The common object of interest addressed by these volumes – authoritarian regimes and transitional responses to them, over time – is significant in itself. It also reminds us, firstly, that transitional justice dynamics are not reducible to immediate policy menus, and, secondly, that they do not disappear when intellectual fashions change.