Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T21:08:51.520Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“We Don't Believe in Transitional Justice:” Peace and the Politics of Legal Ideas in Colombia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Jamie Rebecca Rowen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article draws on law and society theories on the circulation of legal ideas to explain the instrumentalization of transitional justice in Colombia. Most scholarship explains transitional justice as a theoretical framework or as a set of instruments that helps redress mass violence. In contrast, this study reveals that the idea serves as a placeholder for different political actors to promote their respective interests. Drawing on over fifty interviews, the study suggests that the power of transitional justice lies in its malleability, which is both its strength and its weakness, as those with different political agendas can appropriate the idea in contradictory ways. The findings emphasize that understanding transitional justice requires a turn from abstract analyses that either take the idea for granted or try to define its meaning toward examining how people on the ground understand the idea, and how they translate those understandings into political action.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , Summer 2017 , pp. 622 - 647
Copyright
Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Alberstein, Michael. 2011. ADR and Transitional Justice as Reconstructing the Rule of Law. Journal of Dispute Resolution 1:127–44.Google Scholar
American Society of International Law. n.d. Interest Groups: Transitional Justice and Rule of Law. https://www.asil.org/community/transitional-justice-and-rule-law (accessed May 10, 2016).Google Scholar
Arthur, Paige. 2009. How “Transitions” Reshaped Human Rights: A Conceptual History of Transitional Justice. Human Rights Quarterly 31 (2): 321–67.Google Scholar
Basu, Amrita. 2000. Globalization of the Local/Localization of the Global Mapping Transnational Women's Movements. Meridians 1 (1): 68–84.Google Scholar
Baxter, Victoria, Chapman, Audrey R., and van der Merwe, Hugo, eds. 2009. Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice: Challenges for Empirical Research. Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Bell, Christine, and O'Rourke, Christine. 2007. The People's Peace? Peace Agreements, Civil Society, and Participatory Democracy. International Political Science Review 28 (3): 293–324.Google Scholar
de Brito, Alexandra Barahona, Enriquez, Carmen Gonzalez, and Aguilar, Paloma, eds. 2001. The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing Societies. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brodzinsky, Sibylla. 2015. FARC Peace Talks: Colombia Nears Historic Deal After Agreement on Justice and Reparations. Guardian, September 23. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/24/farc-peacetalks-colombia-nears-historic-deal-after-agreement-on-justice-and-reparations (accessed September 24, 2015).Google Scholar
Carillo, Felix. 2009. The Victims Remember: Notes About the Social Practice of Memory. In Recordar en Conflicto: Initiativas No Oficiales de Memoria en Colombia. International Center for Transitional Justice. On file with author.Google Scholar
Casey, Nicholas. 2016. Colombia and FARC Agree to Put Down Their Arms and End America's Longest War. New York Times, August 24. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/world/americas/colombia-farc-peace-deal.html (accessed August 25, 2016).Google Scholar
Clark, Philip, and Kaufman, Zachary Daniel. 2008. After Genocide: Transitional Justice, Post‐Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, Kamari Maxine. 2009. Fictions of Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Challenge of Legal Pluralism in Sub‐Saharan Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, Kamari Maxine, and Goodale, Mark, eds. 2009. Mirrors of Justice: Law and Power in the Post‐Cold War Era. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Daly, Erin, and Sarkin‐Hughes, Jeremy. 2007. Reconciliation in Divided Societies: Finding Common Ground. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Diaz, Catalina. 2008. Challenging Impunity from Below: The Contested Ownership of Transitional Justice in Colombia. In Transitional Justice from Below: Grassroots Activism and the Struggle for Change, ed. McEvoy, Kieran and McGregor, Lorna, 189–216. Oxford: Hart.Google Scholar
Economist. 2015. Time to Call the FARC's Bluff. Economist, July 5. http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21656694-colombias-peace-process-risks-drifting-collapse-time-call-farcs-bluff (accessed August 20, 2015).Google Scholar
El Tiempo. 2015. Uribe Insiste en Que Gobierno Iguala a Militares con Guerrilleros. El Tiempo, December 22, www.eltiempo.com/politica/congreso/opinion-de-uribe-sobre-justicia-transicional-de-militares/16464979 (accessed May 21, 2016).Google Scholar
García‐Godos, J., and Lid, K. A. O. 2010. Transitional Justice and Victims' Rights Before the End of a Conflict: The Unusual Case of Colombia. Journal of Latin American Studies 42 (3): 487–516.Google Scholar
Goodale, Mark, and Merry, Sally Engle. 2007. The Practice of Human Rights: Tracking Law Between the Global and the Local. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gray, David. 2005. An Excuse‐Centered Approach to Transitional Justice. Fordham Law Review 74 (5): 2621–93.Google Scholar
Historical Memory Group. n.d. About. http://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co (accessed December 20, 2014).Google Scholar
Iverson, Jens. 2013. Transitional Justice, Jus Post Bellum and International Criminal Law: Differentiating the Usages, History and Dynamics. International Journal of Transitional Justice 7 (3): 413–33.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Douglas. 2006. Break with the Past or Justice in Pieces: Divergent Paths on the Question of Amnesty in Argentina and Colombia. Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law 35:175–205.Google Scholar
Kalmanovitz, Pablo. 2010 . Introduction: Law and Politics in the Colombian Negotiations with Paramilitary Groups. In Law in Peace Negotiations, 2d ed., ed. Bergsmo, Morten and Kalmanovitz, Pablo, 1–25. Oslo: FICHL.Google Scholar
Kennedy, David. 2004. The Dark Sides of Virtue. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kritz, Neil J. 1995. Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes. Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Laplante, Lisa J., and Theidon, Kimberley. 2006. Transitional Justice in Times of Conflict: Colombia's Ley de Justicia y Paz. Michigan Journal of International Law 28 (1): 49–107.Google Scholar
de León‐Beltrán, Isaac, and Salcedo‐Albarán, E. 2008. Narcotráfico y Parapolítica en Colombia, 1980–2007: Evolución del Capital Social Perverso. Bogotá: Metodo.Google Scholar
Levitt, Peggy, and Merry, Sally Engle. 2009. Vernacularization on the Ground: Local Uses of Global Women's Rights in Peru, China, India and the United States. Global Networks 9 (4): 441–61.Google Scholar
Lutz, Ellen, and Sikkink, Kathryn. 2001. The Justice Cascade: The Evolution and Impact of Foreign Human Rights Trials in Latin America. Chicago Journal of International Law 2 (1): 1–34.Google Scholar
Madlingozi, Tshepo. 2010. On Transitional Justice Entrepreneurs and the Production of Victims. Journal of Human Rights Practice 2 (2): 208–28.Google Scholar
Massoud, Mark Fathi. 2011. Do Victims of War Need International Law? Human Rights Education Programs in Authoritarian Sudan. Law & Society Review 45 (1): 1–32.Google Scholar
Massoud, Mark Fathi. 2013. Law's Fragile State: Colonial, Authoritarian, and Humanitarian Legacies in Sudan. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael. 1994. Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McEvoy, Kieran. 2007. Beyond Legalism: Towards a Thicker Understanding of Transitional Justice. Journal of Law and Society 34 (4): 411–40.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle. 2006a. Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into Local Justice. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle. 2006b. Transnational Human Rights and Local Activism: Mapping the Middle. American Anthropologist 108 (1): 38–51.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle, and Stern, Rachel E. 2005. The Female Inheritance Movement in Hong Kong: Theorizing the Local/Global Interface. Current Anthropology 46 (3): 387–408.Google Scholar
Miller, Zinaida. 2008. Effects of Invisibility: In Search of the “Economic” in Transitional Justice. International Journal of Transitional Justice 2 (3): 266–91.Google Scholar
Nader, Laura. 1991. Harmony Ideology: Justice and Control in a Zapotec Mountain Village. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Nader, Laura. 1997. Controlling Processes: Tracing the Dynamic Components of Power. Current Anthropology 38 (5): 711–38.Google Scholar
Nader, Laura. 1999. Globalization of Law: ADR as “Soft Technology.” American Society of International Law Proceedings 93:304–11.Google Scholar
Nader, Laura, and Grande, Elisabetta. 2002. Current Illusions and Delusions About Conflict Management: In Africa and Elsewhere. Law & Social Inquiry 27 (3): 573–91.Google Scholar
Nagy, Rosemary. 2008. Transitional Justice as Global Project: Critical Reflections. Third World Quarterly 29 (2): 275–89.Google Scholar
Olsen, Tricia D., Payne, Leigh A., and Reiter, Andrew G. 2010. Transitional Justice in Balance: Comparing Processes, Weighing Efficacy. Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Posner, Eric A., and Vermeule, Adrian. 2004. Transitional Justice as Ordinary Justice. Harvard Law Review 117 (3): 761–825.Google Scholar
Rettberg, Angelika, ed. 2005. Entre el Perdón y el Paredón. Preguntas y Dilemas de la Justicia Transicional. Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de Los Andes.Google Scholar
Roht‐Arriaza, Naomi, and Mariezcurrena, Javier. 2006. Transitional Justice in the Twenty‐First Century: Beyond Truth Versus Justice. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rowen, Jamie. 2012. Mobilizing Truth: Agenda Setting in a Transnational Social Movement. Law & Social Inquiry 37 (3): 686–718.Google Scholar
Rowen, Jamie. 2016. Colombians Rejected Transitional Justice for Guerillas, They Want Criminal Justice Instead. Washington Post-Monkey Cage, Oct. 8, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/08/colombians-rejected-transitional-justice-for-guerrillas-they-want-criminal-justice-instead (accessed October 24, 2016).Google Scholar
Santos, Boaventura, and Rodríguez‐Garavito, César A., eds. 2005. Law and Globalization from Below: Towards a Cosmopolitan Legality. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Scheffer, David J. 2001. The Tool Box, Past and Present, of Justice and Reconciliation for Atrocities. American Journal of International Law 95 (4): 970–77.Google Scholar
Semana. 2015. Kofi Annan se Equivoca, no Vamos a Pagar ni un Sia el el Carcel. March 2. http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/farc-dicen-que-no-pagaran-carcel-en-respuesta-declaraciones-de-kofi-annan/419700-3 (accessed April 20, 2015).Google Scholar
Sharp, Dustin. 2015. Emancipating Transitional Justice from the Bonds of the Paradigmatic Transition. International Journal of Transitional Justice 15 (1): 150–70.Google Scholar
Shaw, Rosalind, Waldorf, Lars, and Hazan, Pierre, eds. 2010. Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities After Mass Violence. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Subotić, Jelena. 2009. Hijacked Justice: Dealing with the Past in the Balkans. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Subotić, Jelena. 2012. The Transformation of International Transitional Justice Advocacy. International Journal of Transitional Justice 6 (1): 106–25.Google Scholar
Summers, Nicole. 2012. Colombia's Victims' Law: Transitional Justice in a Time of Violent Conflict? Harvard Human Rights Journal 25:219–37.Google Scholar
Teitel, Ruti G. 2000. Transitional Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Teitel, Ruti G. 2008. Editorial Note: Transitional Justice Globalized. International Journal of Transitional Justice 2:1–4.Google Scholar
Theidon, Kimberly. 2009. Editorial Note. International Journal of Transitional Justice 3 (2): 295–300.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles, and Tarrow, Sidney. 2007. Contentious Politics. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.Google Scholar
Uprimny, Roderigo, and Saffon, Maria P. 2007. Usos y Abusos de la Justicia Transicional en Colombia. Anuario de Derechos Humanos 165–95.Google Scholar
Wilson, Richard Ashby. 2001. The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zalaquett, José. 1992. Balancing Ethical Imperatives and Political Constraints: The Dilemma of New Democracies Confronting Past Human Rights Violations. Hastings Law Journal 43 (6): 1425–38.Google Scholar
Colombian Justice and Peace Law, Law 975 (2005).Google Scholar
Colombian Law 782 (2002).Google Scholar
Colombian Legal Framework for Peace, Legislative Act No. 1 (2012).Google Scholar
Colombian Victim's Law, Law 1448 (2011).Google Scholar
Government of Colombia, Presidential Decree 1290/08, adopted on April 22, 2008.Google Scholar
Colombian Justice and Peace Law, Law 975 (2005).Google Scholar
Colombian Law 782 (2002).Google Scholar
Colombian Legal Framework for Peace, Legislative Act No. 1 (2012).Google Scholar
Colombian Victim's Law, Law 1448 (2011).Google Scholar
Government of Colombia, Presidential Decree 1290/08, adopted on April 22, 2008.Google Scholar