Truth V. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions

by Dennis Thompson and Robert I. Rotberg

Book Overview

The truth commission is an increasingly common fixture of newly democratic states with repressive or strife-ridden pasts. From South Africa to Haiti, truth commissions are at work with varying degrees of support and success. To many, they are the best--or only--way to achieve a full accounting of crimes committed against fellow citizens and to prevent future conflict. Others question whether a restorative justice that sets the guilty free, that...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691050724
• ISBN13: 9780691050720
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Essential for anyone researching truth commissions

The book contains pieces by noted academics such as Amy Gutman, Martha Minow and Kent Greenawalt, providing a reasonably through overview of the moral issues surrounding truth commissions. The book tries to pose and discuss questions such as "Do truth commissions sacrifice justice for pragmatic reasons?" and "Can truth commissions be justified by appeals to non-retributive theories of justice." Almost all of the essays are well written, and on the whole the book provides an excellent introduction into the theory behind truth commissions, though it focuses almost exclusively on the South African model and generally ignores commissions in Latin America and Europe. Although a number of the essays cite historical events, the book lacks pieces describing the actual formation and work of South Africa's Truth Commission; nor does it contain any primary documents. However, most of the relevant documents are easily accessible on the web, and their absence does not seriously detract from the book. The book is solidly aimed at the academic realm; those wishing for an easy-to-read, general introduction to truth commissions should probably look elsewhere. However, I highly recommend this book as a general reference and for students and scholars seriously interested in the theoretical underpinnings of truth commissions.