Justice after Transition: On the Choices Successor Elites Make in Dealing with the Past |
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| Authors: | Luc Huyse |
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| Affiliation: | Professor of sociology and sociology of law at the University of Leuven Law School (Belgium). He has written widely on postwar politics in Western Europe and is currently studying the role of the judiciary in transitions to democracy. The author is grateful to the editors and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier draft. |
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| Abstract: | The author looks at one component of transitions to democracy: the strategies successor elites develop to deal with injustices committed by the previous, authoritarian regime. He compares post-transition justice in Belgium, France, and The Netherlands after World War II and in Eastem Europe after the fall of communism. He discusses several factors that influence policy choices. Among the most influenrial are the legacy of the past regime, the internutwnal legal context at the time of the passage to democracy, and the mode of transition and its ensuing impact on the balance of power between the old and the new order. |
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