Forum: Raluca Grosescu’s Justice and Memory after Dictatorship
Forum: Raluca Grosescu’s Justice and Memory after Dictatorship

Summary/Abstract: Raluca Grosescu’s Justice and Memory after Dictatorship explores how lawyers mobilised, contested, (re)interpreted, and adjusted key notions of international criminal law in domestic contexts during the transition from dictatorship to democracy in the two semi-peripheries of Latin America and Central Eastern Europe (CEE). The book is remarkable for a variety of reasons. It is based on an impressive amount of empirical data collected over 10 years, including more than 80 interviews with legal practitioners, ethnographic observations of trials, jurisprudence produced in national, regional, and international courts, as well as memoirs and academic literature published by central actors. It uses this material to develop a comparative perspective to analyse the transition in eight countries (Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Estonia, Guatemala, Lithuania, Paraguay, and Romania) and trace global connections. Despite its attention to detail and nuance, it is concise and coherent. It is written in an interdisciplinary manner and speaks to ongoing debates in various academic fields, first and foremost in international relations (IR), international law, the sociology of law, and history. Finally, it is equally valuable for those working on the peculiarities of the two world regions or of international criminal justice, as it is for those interested more in the bigger picture.

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