State (ir)responsibility and the (un)making of transformative reparations at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

Abstract

ABSTRACT To what extent are reparations still meaningful when a government is unwilling or unable to deliver or endorse these initiatives? And what are the consequences for transitional justice when private authorities and external actors step in and abdicate the state’s responsibility to deliver these public goods after a war? This article explores opportunities for public-private actor collaborations in this area and argues that the act of state abdication creates a legitimacy gap in reparations programmes that compromises their value as a public good that can offer satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. It further contends, through a detailed case study of the reparations process of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, that ‘letting the state off the hook’ can effectively embolden governments to capitalise on and/or politicise reparations by taking credit for them, thereby, having a detrimental effect on their transformative potential.