Quantitative Impact Assessment in Transitional Justice Research: No Single Truth in Place?
Quantitative Impact Assessment in Transitional Justice Research: No Single Truth in Place?

Summary/Abstract: Transitional Justice (TJ) mechanisms have seen a rise both in number and popularity. The so called ―Justice Cascade is marked by a proliferation of TJ mechanisms worldwide. TJ as a tool to deal with a past of mass human right violations and intends via a number of mechanisms (trials, truth commissions, reparations, amnesties, vetting, etc…) to come to terms with the past, to reconcile society, to bring justice to the victims, to strengthen the rule of law and democracy and to establish accountability. The debate on the intended impacts of TJ however has been conducted largely on a theoretical basis or on the grounds of qualitative research. Only lately there have been a number of quantitative studies on large scale cross country impact assessment of TJ mechanisms. Nevertheless research results are very mixed and do not leave space for clear conclusions. This paper explores the debate on TJ impacts as well as the state-of-the-art of quantitative research and results. Further a number of shortcomings and necessary improvements are highlighted. The study provides an overview of the field of quantitative research in the realm of TJ underlines the importance of qualitative and quantitative impact assessment and provides a short outlook on needed future research.

• Details
• Contents