Transitional Justice

Ruti Teitel explores the ways in which a society should respond to evil rule. This is an insightful analysis of one of the most fundamental political science issues of our times - how the emerging democracies in Eastern Europe and elsewhere should deal with the legal systems inherited from their authoritarian pasts. Should the past system be repudiated altogether? Should the leaders from the authoritarian period be punished? If so, how? Under what principles of law would punishment be justified, given that the leaders were, in general, acting legally according to the legal systems in effect at the time? This book is the first systematic treatment of these issues. Teitel brings an exceptional breadth of knowledge to bear on the problem, a must read for anyone interested in the role of law in contemporary world politics.https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/fac_books/1027/thumbnail.jp