Transitional justice – the emergence of a new justice-focused legal order following conflicts and massive underlying changes in political, social, and economic structures – could hardly be more timely or more important. Throughout the world, societies struggle to acknowledge historical truths, make just reparations and, through processes of reconciliation, find a way forward. This course will take our students into the heart of one such society, using Kosovo as a case study, and will examine and explore in depth the role of law in attempting to build a just society following the transition from Communism and the emergence of Kosovo as an independent republic following the Serbian-Kosovar wars of the previous decades. As a point of comparison, it will examine similar processes in the post-communist Czech Republic, post-apartheid South Africa and post-fascist Chile. It will also examine the same issues in post-Soviet Ukraine and discuss the prospects for the use of law as a means of reconciliation following the current war. We hope to use this course as a template for future courses focusing on transitional justice in other societies that have recently emerged from a conflict or period of repression of human rights.This course will have four main components:• The Theory of Transitional Justice• The Practice of Transitional Justice in Kosovo• Comparative Transitional Justice• The Prospects for Transitional Justice in Ukraine Grading: Letter Credits: 2 Offered: Subject Areas: International and Comparative Law, Public Interest Law
