The International Journal of Transitional Justice invites submissions for its 2009 special issue titled "Whose Justice? Global and Local Approaches to Transitional Justice" to be guest edited by Professor Kimberly Theidon, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University and Executive Director of Praxis Institute for Social Justice.

In this special issue of the IJTJ, we invite theoretical, practical and policy oriented papers that examine both the complementary and contradictory logics introduced when considering a politics of scale. Just as we advocate moving beyond the disciplinary fiefdoms that hamper our collective thinking on these issues, we also encourage thinking that explores the points of articulations between international, national and local transitional justice measures.

Papers in this issue may address topics such as:

• The definition of transitional justice and its goals — who defines the field and whether there are universal concepts which can be applied.
• The relationship between international justice mechanisms and local processes and priorities – including complementarity, sequencing and differing definitions of victimhood.
• The role of actors/stakeholders involved when introducing a politics of scale into our analyses.
• How do local priorities, histories and international standards converge and diverge and with what consequences.
• How do transitional justice mechanisms contribute, if they do, to the goal of reconciliation/social reconstruction.
• How might local justice mechanisms be incorporated into state and international interventions.
• What is the role of ritual in accessing guilt and administering various forms of justice.
• Traditional justice – its use and misuse in its application to transitional justice.

Articles should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length or 1,500 – 5000 words if submitted for the "Notes from the Field" section.

The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2009.

Please see the detailed submission information: Information for Authors

• International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ)