Effects of Invisibility: In Search of the 'Economic' in Transitional Justice

Abstract

1 This article argues that the field of transitional justice – in both its institutional and scholarly aspects – has historically excluded issues of economic inequality, structural violence, redistribution and development. It seeks to combine a conceptual critique with concrete institutional examples in an effort both to highlight the theory/practice relationship within the field and to anchor theoretical claims in particular examples. The first part of the article briefly describes the chronological and regional iterations of transitional justice in light of its nature as a global enterprise. The second part of the article examines the constructed invisibility of economic questions in the literature and institutions, suggesting that exclusion derives from particular patterns: ignoring the issues altogether, treating inequality or structural violence as contextual background rather than central issues in transition, or reducing economic concerns to a narrowed discussion of reparations. The final section outlines three possible costs of economic invisibility: (1) an incomplete understanding of the origins of conflict; (2) an inability to imagine structural change due to a focus on reparations; and (3) the possibility of renewed violence due to a failure to address the role of inequality in conflict.