Revisiting state socialist approaches to international criminal and humanitarian law : an introduction

Abstract

More than twenty years after Augusto Pinochet’s arrest in London, this special issue examines the globalization of post-dictatorial and post-conflict justice and memory processes through the lens of interconnections and mutual influences between Europe and South America. The collection challenges the currently domi- nant literature on reckoning with violent pasts. It does so by moving beyond both analyses confined within specific national borders and diffusionist accounts of so- called “universalised” justice and mnemonic paradigms purportedly embraced worldwide. The Trans-Atlantic perspective provides scholars with an ideal oppor- tunity to analyse empirically the nexus between global and local scales of action, and to highlight agency in transnational mnemopolitics. Through case studies of trans-regional entanglements, we contend that the globalization of memory and justice paradigms goes hand in hand with a fragmentation of, and on occasion com- petition between different narratives concerning dictatorial pasts, between inter- national, regional and local understandings of “best practices” of dealing with political violence, and between various professional groups engaged in account- ability and remembrance processes. The collection shows the multi-faceted nature of transnational transfers and collaborations, some of which reflect concepts that have become significant in the international arena, while others mirror ideas and practices with limited global impact that circulate only between “semi-periph- eries” or between less influential networks of activists.