From Reconciliation to Transitional Justice: The Contours of Redress Politics in Established Democracies

Abstract

Should historical injustices in established democracies be scrutinized within the growing transitional justice field? How can transitional justice as a conceptual framework help to make sense of redress activity in established democracies? This article contributes to a growing discussion about the theorization of transitional justice. I argue that a broader conceptualization of transitional justice is instrumental not only for examining the past wrongdoings of established democracies, but also for giving coherence to diverse and competing discourses on colonial injustices. Drawing on redress politics in the Australian context, the article adopts nuanced understandings of both 'transition' and 'justice' as necessarily contested and incomplete. Transitional justice thus provides a unifying framework for understanding the contours of redress politics, which can in turn strengthen practical responses to past injustices and their contemporary effects.