Abstract

Transitional justice (TJ) has typically been characterized as the large body of literature that discusses ways in which new democracies and states recovering from domestic conflict deal with their authoritarian and violent legacies. Transitional justice mechanisms fall into one of the following categories: (1) trials of former perpetrators for human rights violations, (2) reparations to victims, (3) legislative acts condemning the former regime, and (4) truth revelation procedures (Elster 2004). The first category includes trials and lifting statutes of limitation, enabling courts to prosecute crimes for which statutes of limitation have expired.