Contemporary Transitional Justice: Normalising a Politics of Exception

This article studies the contemporary expression of transitional justice, a field of practice through which global governance is exercised. It argues that transitional justice is being normalised, given the normative and empirical de-legitimisation of its premise of exceptionalism. The article theorises exceptionalism and normalcy in transitional justice and identifies three macro-level causes of normalisation: the legalisation, internationalisation and professionalisation of the field. This argument is illustrated by a study of Uganda's trajectory of transitional justice since 1986. Across five phases of transitional justice, processes of legalisation, internationalisation and professionalisation have contributed to the gradual dismantling of the country's exceptional justice. The case demonstrates, further, that normalisation is a contested and incomplete process.