Political Violence as a Time That is Past? Engaging With Non-Participation in Transitional Justice in Cambodia

Bibliographic Data

ID12282905
AuthorsJulie Bernath (0000-0002-0242-6860, swisspeace and University of Basel, Switzerland, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume28
Issue5
Pages600-624
Publication date2018-10-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial & Legal Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0964-6639 • E-ISSN: 1461-7390
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0964663918805270
OpenAlexW2896351871
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited54

Transitional justice scholarship has increasingly focused on participation to critically reflect upon the legitimacy and transformative potential of transitional justice. This article addresses these issues yet through a different vantage point: that of non-participation. It focuses on the case study of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and a particular set of actors: those who continue to face political violence in Cambodia today. Thereby, it engages with the perspectives of those often overlooked in transitional justice for having opted out of the process, but also for putting forward justice claims that exceed the mandate of established transitional justice institutions. This article draws from qualitative fieldwork conducted in Cambodia between 2013 and 2016. It demonstrates the epistemic value of engaging with non-participation in transitional justice. It argues that non-participation in judicial transitional justice processes is inherently linked to the ways in which ordinary citizens experience and understand the law in their everyday life. It further highlights continuities in subjective experiences of political violence, which question discourses that political violence is a time that is past in Cambodia

Criminology · Economic Justice · Legitimacy · Mandate · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Sociology · Transitional justice · Tribunal · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Cambodian History and Society · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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