eprintid: 27275
rev_number: 19
userid: 5570
dir: disk0/00/02/72/75
datestamp: 2016-03-21 15:02:40
lastmod: 2021-03-10 05:58:01
status_changed: 2016-03-21 15:02:40
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
contact_email: matiangai.sirleaf@pitt.edu
item_issues_count: 0
eprint_status: archive
creators_name: Sirleaf, Matiangai
creators_email: matiangai.sirleaf@pitt.edu
creators_id: MVS31
creators_orcid: 0000-0002-4187-2783
title: The Truth About Truth Commissions: Why They Do Not Function Optimally in Post-Conflict Societies
ispublished: pub
divisions: sch_law_law_facultypub
divisions: sch_law_law
full_text_status: public
abstract: Using insights from the legal transplant literature to analyze the transplanting of truth commissions, this paper finds that truth commissions will face more challenges carrying out their mandates in post-conflict versus post authoritarian societies. In post-conflict societies, the combination of weak institutions to support a truth-telling process, combined with large numbers of victims and perpetrators will tend to overwhelm truth commissions. These factors concomitant with lower levels of moral consensus surrounding mass violence interact to make truth commissions function less optimally in post-conflict contexts. Truth commissions can be more successful carrying out institutional mandates in post-conflict contexts when combined with a court because of mutually-reinforcing effects. It concludes that, much more experimentation needs to be done in order to formulate effective and contextually appropriate responses to mass violence instead of the current “one-size-fits-all” approach in transitional justice.
date: 2014-08
date_type: published
publication: Cardozo Law Review
volume: 35
number: 2147
pagerange: 2263 - 2348
institution: University of Pittsburgh
refereed: FALSE
official_url: http://www.cardozolawreview.com/content/35-6/SIRLEAF.35.6.pdf
related_url_url: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2309537
etd_access_restriction: immediate
etd_patent_pending: FALSE
article_type: researcharticle
citation:   Sirleaf, Matiangai  (2014) The Truth About Truth Commissions: Why They Do Not Function Optimally in Post-Conflict Societies.  Cardozo Law Review, 35 (2147).  2263 - 2348.      
document_url: http://d-scholarship-dev.library.pitt.edu/27275/1/CardozoLawReviewArticle.pdf
document_url: http://d-scholarship-dev.library.pitt.edu/27275/4/licence.txt