Book Review: Legal Institutions and Collective Memories
Kirsten McConnachie
In discussions around post-conflict justice and truth recovery it is commonly claimed that a criminal trial or truth commission will contribute to the formation of a ‘collective memory’, a historical record of events which is agreed by all sides. Typically absent from these claims is a critical interrogation of what collective memory is, whether it is necessarily benevolent or even whether the deliberate construction of such a collective memory is a legitimate function of legal process. Legal Institutions and Collective Memories engages with such dilemmas in 17 essays which include descriptive case studies and more abstract reflections on memory, justice, truth and transition.