Justice and Memory after Dictatorship: Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Fragmentation of International Criminal Law provides a ground-breaking socio-historical account of the global transformation of international criminal law after the fall of dictatorships at the end of the 1980s.

The twentieth century has left behind a painful and complicated legacy of massive trauma, monstrous crimes, radical social engineering, creating collective/individual guilt syndromes that were often specters haunting the process of democratization in the various societies that have emerged out of these profoundly de-structuring contexts, such as Germany, Romania, Russia and others.

This powerful text provides the first systematic analysis of the second wave of memory and justice mobilization throughout Latin America. Pairing clear explanations of concepts and debates with case studies, the book offers a unique opportunity for students to interpret the history and politics of Latin American countries. The contributors provide insight into human rights issues and grassroots movements that are essential for a broader understanding of struggles for justice, memory, and equality across the globe, especially during our current unsettled times of political polarization, violence, repression, and popular resistance worldwide.

This interdisciplinary study explores the interaction between memory and transitional justice in post-dictatorship Argentina and Uruguay and develops a theoretical framework for bringing these two fields of study together through the concept of critical junctures.

Discusses the birth pangs of democracy in post-communist Romania, and its difficult transition from a state of non-law to a rule-of-law state.

Explores how the former communist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe have grappled with the serious human rights violations of past regimes.