HISTORICISING
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
A N E A R LY M O D E R N P E R S P E C T I V E
ON POSTWAR RECONCILIATION
D R D AV I D VA N D E R L I N D E N
UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN
“The full range of processes and mechanisms
associated with a society’s attempts to come to
terms with a legacy of large-scale past abuses, in
order to ensure accountability, serve justice and
achieve reconciliation.”
– THE RULE OF LAW AND TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN
C O N F L I C T A N D P O S T- C O N F L I C T S O C I E T I E S ( 2 0 0 4 )
JOHN ELSTER
CLOSING THE
BOOKS (2004)
EDICT OF
NANTES (1598)
“The memory of everything done be one party or
the other, shall remain obliterated and forgotten,
as if no such things have ever happened. (…)
It shall not be permitted by our prosecutors, nor
by anyone else, to either mention these events or
prosecute them in court.”
–EDICT OF NANTES (1598) ARTICLE I
HISTORICISING
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
A N E A R LY M O D E R N P E R S P E C T I V E
ON POSTWAR RECONCILIATION
D R D AV I D VA N D E R L I N D E N
UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN