Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-nzzs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-17T05:04:30.002Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Unforgotten: Memories of Justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2017

W. James Booth
W. James Booth*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Justice is, in part, a form of remembrance: Memory occupies a vital place at the heart of justice and its struggle to keep the victims, crimes, and perpetrators among the unforgotten. I argue that this memory-justice at once informs core judicial practices and ranges beyond them in a manner that leaves judicial closure incomplete. It reminds us of a duty to keep crimes and their victims from the oblivion of forgetting, of a duty to restore, preserve, and acknowledge the just order of the world. Yet, in the shadow of remembrance, other human goods can wither, goods located in the temporal registers of present and future. This latter lesson is important, but it is one with which we are familiar. I emphasize another, with which we are perhaps less at home: the intimacy of memory's bond with justice, not as obsessional or as a syndrome, but as a face of justice itself.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 95 , Issue 4 , December 2001 , pp. 777 - 791
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackerman, Bruce A. 1992. The Future of Liberal Revolution. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Aeschylus, . 1971. Aeschylus. Works in Two Volumes, ed. and trans. Smyth, Herbert Weir, vol. 2, Eumenides. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library.Google Scholar
Aichenrand, Leïzer. 1993. “Paysage de destin.” In Rachel Ertel, Dans la langue de personne. Poésie yiddish de I'anéantissement, Appendix. Paris: Seuil. Pp. 148–9.Google Scholar
Alfonsín, Raúl. 1993. ‘“Never Again’ in Argentina.” Journal of Democracy 4 (January): 15–9.Google Scholar
Améry, Jean. 1977. Jenseits von Schuld und Sühne. Bewältigungsversucheeines Überwältigen. Stuttgart: Klett-Cota.Google Scholar
Appelfeld, Aharon. 1994. Beyond Despair. Three Lectures and a Conversation with Philip Roth, trans. Green, Jeffrey M.. New York: Fromm International.Google Scholar
Appelfeld, Aharon. 1998. The Iron Tracks, trans. Green, Jeffrey M.. New York: Schocken.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1963. On Revolution. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1989. Zur Zeit. Politische Essays. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.Google Scholar
Aristotle, . 1952. “The Athenian Constitution,” trans. Rackham, Harris. In The Athenian Constitution. The Eudemian Ethics. On Virtues and Vices. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library. Pp. 8–181.Google Scholar
Bacon, Francis. 1951. “The Advancement of Learning.” In The Advancement of Learning and New Atlantis, ed. Cumberlege, Geoffrey. London: Oxford University Press. Pp. 3–254.Google Scholar
Bacon, Francis. 1965. “Of Revenge.” In Francis Bacon, ed. Johnston, Arthur. New York: Schocken. P. 104.Google Scholar
Bédarida, François. 1993. “La memoire contra l'histoire.” Espirit 193 (July): 7–13.Google Scholar
Blair, Tony. 1998a. “Prime Minister Blair's Statement to the House of Commons 29 January 1998,” http://www.bloody-sunday-inquiry.org.uk/index2.asp?p=l (accessed 6 April 2001).Google Scholar
Blair, Tony. 1998b. “Speech by Prime Minister the Right Honourable Tony Blair MP to the Oireachtas, Dublin, Thursday, 26 November 1998.” http://www.nio.gov.uk/press/981126g-nio.htm (accessed 11 April 2001).Google Scholar
Blair, Tony. 1999. “Remarks by the Prime Minister the Right Honourable Tony Blair MP,” http://www.nio.gov.uk/990401decnio.htm (accessed 4 April 2001).Google Scholar
Booth, W. James. 1999. “Communities of Memory: On Identity, Memory, and Debt.” American Political Science Review 93 (June): 249–63.Google Scholar
Carson, Anne. 1999. Economy of the Unlost. Reading Simonides of Keos with Paul Celan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Stanley. 1995. “State Crimes of Previous Regimes: Knowledge, Accountability, and the Policing of the Past.” Law and Social Inquiry 20 (Winter): 7–50.Google Scholar
De Brito, Alexandra Barahona. 1997. Human Rights and Democratization in Latin America. Uruguay and Chile. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Detienne, Marcel. 1994. Les mâitres de la vérité dans la Grèce archaïque. Paris: L'Ouverture.Google Scholar
Elster, Jon. 1998. “Coming to Terms with the Past: A Framework for the Study of Justice in the Transition to Democracy.” Archiveseuropéennes de sociologie 39 (1): 7–48.Google Scholar
Enzensberger, Hans Magnus. 1990. Civil Wars. From L.A. to Bosnia, trans. Chalmers, Martin. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Ertel, Rachel. 1993. Dans la langue de personne. Poésie yiddish de I'anèantissement. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Finkielkraut, Alain. 1989. La mémoire vaine. Du crime contra I'humanité. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Finkielkraut, Alain. 2000. Une voix vient de I'autre rive. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Frei, Norbert. 1997. “Amnestiepolitik in den Anfangsjahren der Bundesrepublik.” In Amnestie oder die Politik der Erinnerung in der Demokratie, ed. Smith, Gary and Margalit, Avishai. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Pp. 120–37.Google Scholar
French, Peter A. 1984. Collective and Corporate Responsibility. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
French, Peter A. 1992. Responsibility Matters. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Gacon, Stéphane. 1994. “L'oubli institutionnel.” In Oublier noscrimes. L'amnésie nationale, une spéificité française?, ed. Nicolaïdis, Dimitri. Paris: Autrement. Pp. 98–111.Google Scholar
Gross, Jan T. 2001. Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gutmann, Amy, and Dennis, Thompson. 2000. “The Moral Foundations of Truth Commissions.” In Truth v. Justice. The Morality of Truth Commissions, ed. Rotberg, Robert I. and Thompson, Dennis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pp. 22–44.Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen. 1997. “Warum ein ‘Demokratiepreis’ für Daniel J. Goldhagen? Eine Laudatio.” Die Zeit, March 14, http://service.ecce-terram.de/zeit-archiv/daten/pages/historie.txt.19970314.html (accessed 27 February 1999).Google Scholar
Habermas, Jürgen 1998. Die postnationale Konstellation. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Hayner, Priscilla B. 1995. “Fifteen Truth Commissions: 1974–1994: A Comparative Study.” In Transitional Justice. How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, ed. Kritz, Neil J., vol. 1, General Considerations. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace. Pp. 225–61.Google Scholar
Heaney, Seamus. 1980. “Requiem for the Croppies.” In Poems. 1965–1975. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. P. 54.Google Scholar
Herbert, Zbigniew. 1977. Selected Poems, trans. Carpenter, John and Carpenter, Bogdana. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Herbert, Zbigniew. 1985. Report from the Besieged City and Other Poems, trans. Carpenter, John and Carpenter, Bogdana. New York: Ecco.Google Scholar
Hesiod, . 1983. “Theogony.” In Hesiod: Theogony. Works and Days. Shield, ed. Athanassakis, A. N.. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Pp. 13–57.Google Scholar
Holiday, Anthony. 1998. “Forgiving and Forgetting: The Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” In Negotiating the Past. The Making of Memory in South Africa, ed. Nutall, Sarah and Coetzee, Carli. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 43–56.Google Scholar
Holmes, Stephen. 1995. “The End of Decommunization.” In Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, ed. Kritz, Neil J., vol. 1, General Considerations. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace. Pp. 116–20.Google Scholar
Homer, . 1977. The Odyssey, trans. Lattimore, Richmond. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1991. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Huyse, Luc. 1995. “Justice after Transition: On the Choices Successor Elites Make in Dealing with the Past.” Law and Social Inquiry 20 (Winter): 51–78.Google Scholar
Jankélévitch, Vladimir. 1967. Le pardon. Paris: Aubier-Montaigne.Google Scholar
Jankélévitch, Vladimir. 1974. L'irreversible et la nostalgic Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar
Jankélévitch, Vladimir. 1986. L'imprescriptible. Pardonner? Dans Vhonneur et la dignité. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Jaspers, Karl. 1965. “Die Schuldfrage.” In Hoffnung und Sorge. Schriften zur deutschen Politik 1945–1965. Munich: Piper. Pp. 67–144.Google Scholar
Judt, Tony. 2000. “The Past as Another Country: Myth and Memory in Postwar Europe.” In The Politics of Retribution in Europe. World War II and Its Aftermath, ed. IDeák, stván, Gross, Jan T., and Judt, Tony. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pp. 293–323.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. [1793] 1974. On the old saw: that may be right in theory but it won't work in practice, trans. Ashton, E. B.. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. [1797] 1991. The Metaphysics of Morals, trans. Gregor, Mary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1964. Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, trans. Paton, H. J.. New York: Harper Torchbooks.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1968a. Kants Werke. Akademie-Textausgabe, vol. 4, Gmndlegung zur Metaphysic der Sitten. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1968b. Kants Werke. Akademie-Textausgabe, vol. 3: Kritik der reinen Vemunft, 2d ed. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1968c. Kants Werke. Akademie-Textausgabe, vol. 4, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, 1st ed. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1968d. Kants Werke. Akademie-Textausgabe, vol. 6: Die Metaphysik der Sitten. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. 1968e. Kants Werke. Akademie-Textausgabe, vol. 8: Über den Gemeinspruch: Das mag in der Theorie richtig sein, taugt aber nicht für die Praxis. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kiderlen, Elisabeth. 1990. “Le musée juif de Prague.” In A I'Est, la mémoire retrouvée, ed. Brossat, Alain. Paris: La Decouverte. Pp. 312–7.Google Scholar
Klarsfeld, Serge. 1986. “Pouvoir juger (plaidoirie).” In Archives d'un Procès. Klaus Barbie, ed. Lévy, Bernard-Henri. Paris: Globe. Pp. 136–51.Google Scholar
Klarsfeld, Serge. 1995. Le mémorial des enfants juifs déportés de France. Paris: Les fils et filles des déportés juifs de France. Beate Klarsfeld Foundation.Google Scholar
Kugelmass, Jack, and Boyarin, Jonathan, eds. 1998. From a Ruined Garden: The Memorial Books of Polish Jewry, ed. and trans. Kugelmass, Jack and Boyarin, Jonathan. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Lagrou, Pieter. 2000. The Legacy of Nazi Occupation. Patriotic Memory and National Recovery in Western Europe, 1945–1965. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lanzmann, Claude. 1986. “‘Shoah’ et la shoah.” In Archives d'un Procès. Klaus Barbie, ed. Lévy, Bernard-Henri. Paris: Globe. Pp. 51–8.Google Scholar
Lapierre, Nicole. 1989. Le silence de la mémoire. A la recherche des Juifs de Plock. Paris: Plon.Google Scholar
Le Goff, Jacques. 1992. History and Memory, trans. Rendell, Steven and Claman, Elizabeth. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Lenz, Siegfried. 1992. Über das Gedächtnis. Munich: DTV.Google Scholar
Loening, Thomas Clark. 1987. “The Reconciliation Agreement of 403/402 B.C. in Athens.” In Hermes. Zeitschrift für klassische Philologie, vol. 53, ed. Blänsdorf, Jürgen, Bleicken, Jochen, and Kullmann, Wolfgang. Stuttgart: Fritz Steiner.Google Scholar
Loraux, Nicole. 1988a. “De l'amnistie et de son contraire.” In Colloque de Royaumont: Usages de l'oubli. Paris: Seuil. Pp. 23–47.Google Scholar
Loraux, Nicole. 1988b. “Pour quel consensus?” Le genre humain (Paris) 18 (October): 9–23.Google Scholar
Loraux, Nicole. 1997. La cité divisée. L'oubli dans la mémoire de Athènes. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Malraux, André. 1971. Oraisons funèbres. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Mandelson, Peter. 2000. “Speech to Royal Institute for International Affairs/Chicago Council for Foreign Relations,” http://www.nio.gov.uk/000919a-nio.htm (accessed 4 April 2001).Google Scholar
Melaugh, Martin. 1997a. “Exhibition of large-scale photographs in situ at site of original events, 18 September 1997.” In Photographs Related to ‘Bloody Sunday,’ 30 January 1972, http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/photos/bsunday/bs997d.htm (accessed 4 April 2001).Google Scholar
Melaugh, Martin. 1997b. “Exhibition of large-scale photographs in situ at site of original events, 18 September 1997.” In Photographs Related to ‘Bloody Sunday,’ 30 January 1972, http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/photos/bsunday/bs997b.htm (accessed 4 April 2001).Google Scholar
Michnik, Adam. 1997. “Gray Is Beautiful: Thoughts on Democracy Flammarion. in Central Europe.” Dissent 44 (2). http://www.igc.apc.org/dissent/archive/spring97/michnik.html (accessed 4 April 2001).Google Scholar
Michnik, Adam. 2001. “Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt?“ New York Times, March 17, sec. B, pp. 7, 9.Google Scholar
Michnik, Adam, and Havel, Václav. 1993. “Justice or Revenge?“ Journal of Democracy 4 (January): 20–7.Google Scholar
Milosz, Czeslaw. 1991. Beginning with My Streets, trans. Levine, Madeline G.. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Minow, Martha. 1998. Between Vengeance and Forgiveness. Facing History after Genocide and Mass Violence. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar
Modiano, Patrick. 1999. Dora Bruder. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Morris, Herbert. 1976. On Guilt and Innocence. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, Jeffrie G. 1988a. “Forgiveness and Resentment.” In Forgiveness and Mercy, ed. Murphy, Jeffrie G. and Hampton, Jean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 14–34.Google Scholar
Murphy, Jeffrie G. 1988b. “Mercy and Legal Justice.” In Forgiveness and Mercy, ed. Murphy, Jeffrie G. and Hampton, Jean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 162–86.Google Scholar
Murphy, Jeffrie G., and Hampton, Jean. 1988. Forgiveness and Mercy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Neier, Arieh, Zalaquett, José, and Michnik, Adam. 1997. “Why Deal with the Past?” In Dealing with the Past: Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa, ed. Boraine, Alex, Levy, Janet, and Scheffer, Ronel. Cape Town: Institute for Democracy in South Africa. Pp. 1–18.Google Scholar
Nietzsche, Friedrich. [1874] 1957. The Use and Abuse of History, trans. Collins, Adrian. Indianapolis: Library of Liberal Arts.Google Scholar
Nino, Carlos Santiago. 1996. Radical Evil on Trial. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Nippel, Wilfred. 1997. “Bürgerkrieg und Amnestie: Athens 411—403.” In Amnestie oder die Politik der Erinnerung in der Demokratie, ed. Smith, Gary and Margalit, Avishai. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Pp. 103–19.Google Scholar
Osiel, Marc. 1997. Mass Atrocity, Collective Memory and the Law. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.Google Scholar
Paine, Thomas. [1791/2] 1979. Rights of Man, ed. Collins, Henry. Harmondsworth: Pelican.Google Scholar
Parker, Robert. 1983. Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Pisar, Samuel. 1986. “Nous-a-t-on seulement demandé pardon?” In Archives d'un Procès. Klaus Barbie, ed. Levy, Bernard-Henri. Paris: Globe. Pp. 68–73.Google Scholar
Raczymow, Henri. 1979. Contes d'exil et d'oubli. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Raczymow, Henri. 1985. Un cri sans voix. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Ramnoux, Clémence. 1959. La nuit et les enfants de la nuit de la tradition grecque. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Renan, Ernest. 1992. Qu'est-ce qu'une nation. Paris: Agora.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, Paul. 1995. Le juste. Paris: Espirit.Google Scholar
Ricoeur, Paul. 1997. “Gedächtnis-Vergessen-Geschichte.” In Historische Sinnbildung: Problemstellungen, Zeitkonzepte, Wahrnehmungshorizonte, Darstellungsstrategien, ed. Müller, Klaus E. and Rüsen, Jörn. Hamburg: Rowolt. Pp. 433–54.Google Scholar
Rolston, Bill. 1997. “Republican Tradition: Figure 11. Ardoyne Avenue. Belfast.” In Contemporary Murals in Northern Ireland. Republican Tradition, http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/bibdbs/murals/slidell. htm#ll (accessed 4 April 2001).Google Scholar
Rousso, Henry. 1990. Le syndrome de Vichy de 1944 à nos jours. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Sachs, Albie. 2000. “Epilogue.” In The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 205–45.Google Scholar
Schlink, Bernhard. 1988. “Recht-Schuld-Zukunft.” In Loccumer Protokolle, vol. 66, ed. Callieβ, Jörg. Rehburg: Evangelische Akademie Loccum. Pp. 57–77.Google Scholar
Schlink, Bernhard. 1998. “Die Bewältigung von Vergangenheit durch Recht.” In Vergangenheitsbewältigung am Ende des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, vol 18 of Leviathan, Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft, ed. König, Helmut, Kohlstruck, Michael, and Wö11, Andreas. Opladen/Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag. Pp. 433–51.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 1995. “Amnestie oder der Kraft des Vergessens.” In Staat, Groβraum, Nomos. Arbeiten aus den Jahren 1916–1969, ed. Maschke, Gunter. Berlin: Duncker und Humblot. Pp. 218–21.Google Scholar
Semprún, Jorge. 1994. L'écriture ou la vie. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Semprún, Jorge. 1995. Mai et modernité: le travail de I'histoire. Paris: Climats.Google Scholar
Shklar, Judith. 1990. The Faces of Injustice. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Simondon, Michèle. 1982. La mémoire et I'oubli dans la pensée grecque jusq'à la fin du Ve siècle avant J.-C. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Smith, Gary. 1997. “Ein normatives Niemandsland? Zwischen Gerechtigkeit und Versöhnungspolitik in jungen Demokratien.” In Amnestie oder die Politik der Erinnerung in der Demokratie, ed. Smith, Gary and Margalit, Avishai. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. Pp. 11–20.Google Scholar
Sophocles, . 1994. Sophocles. Works, vol. 1, Oedipus Tyrannus, trans. Lloyd-Jones, Hugh. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library.Google Scholar
Soyinka, Wole. 1999. The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stora, Benjamin. 1991. La gangrène et I'oubli. La mèmoire de la guerre d'Algérie. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Tillion, Germaine. 1946. Ravensbrück, 1st ed. Neuchâtel: Éditions de la Baconnière.Google Scholar
Tillion, Germaine. 1973. Ravensbrück, 2d ed. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Tillion, Germaine. 1988. Ravensbrück. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Todorov, Tzvetan. 1995. Les abus de la mémoire. Paris: Arléa.Google Scholar
Tutu, Archbishop Desmond. 1998. “Foreword by the Chairperson“ to Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Final Report, http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/commissions/1998/trc/lchapl.htm, Cape Town, South Africa (accessed 18 April 2001).Google Scholar
Vernant, Jean-Pierre. 1996. Mythe et pensée chez les Grecs. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Vidal-Naquet, Pierre. 1995. Les juifs, la mémoire et le présent, vol. 3: Réflexions sur le génocide. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 1992. “Superseding Historic Injustice.” Ethics 103 (October): 4–28.Google Scholar
Weschler, Lawrence. 1990. A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Wieviorka, Annette. 1998. L'ère du témoin. Paris: Plon.Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard. 1993. Shame and Necessity. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim. 1988. “Réflexions sur I'oubli.” In Colloque de Royaumont: Usages de l'oubli. Paris: Seuil. Pp. 4–21.Google Scholar
Young, James E. 1993. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.