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Transitional Justice from Below – Chances and Prospects in Contemporary Colombia

Gustavo José Rojas Paez (Colombia)

Ph.D. Project

Transitional justice - understood as the range of procedures of justice in times of transition - has emerged as a focus for scholarship and practical policymaking over the past decades (McEvoy and McGregor 2008:1) “Transitional Justice from below” is a new paradigm that challenges established and more state-centered procedures of transitional justice (Mc Evoy and Mc Gregor 2008). It comprises a range of activities at the grassroots level of societies in conflict.

My project will attempt to identify pathways and factors as well as obstacles for the development of this new paradigm of transitional justice in an ongoing conflict. In particular, I will explore the chances of transitional justice from below to offer viable routes towards peace, in contrast to state-directed models. The project will follow the process of Transitional Justice “in the making” both “top down” and “bottom up”. It will explore the ways in which both are linked together in the Colombian context.

Transitional justice from below in Colombia transcends state-centered conceptualizations of transitional justice and challenges the importance of the state in recreating social order. My research aims to pave the way for Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Latin America and other regions where the role of community in legal processes is underestimated. The proposed project, will help to establish a platform for other actors and future activities to overcome distinctions between academics, practitioners and those directly affected by social processes (Fals Borda and Mora Osejo 2008:404).

Project related literature:
  • Diaz, Catalina (2008): 'Challenging Impunity from Below: The Contested Ownership of Transitional Justice in Colombia.' in: McEvoy, K. and McGregor, L. (eds.) Transitional Justice from Below. P 190 - 205 - 214 Oxford: Hart Publishing.
  • Fals Borda, Orlanado and Mora Osejo Luis (2007): 'Beyond Eurocentrism: Systematic Knowledge in a Tropical context. A Manifesto', in: Santos, Buoventura (ed) Cognitive Justice in a Global World: Prudent Knowledge for a Decent life. P 404. Maryland: Lexington Books.
  • Mc Evoy, K and Mc Gregor, L. (2008): 'Transitional Justice From Below: An Agenda for Research, Policy and Praxis,' in: McEvoy, K. and McGregor, L. (eds.) Transitional Justice from Below. P 1 - 16 Oxford: Hart Publishing.
  • Uprimny, Rodrigo (2007): 'Transitional Justice Without Transition? Possible Lessons from the Use (and Misuse) of Transitional Justice Discourse in Colombia.' Lecture given at the international conference "Building a Future on Peace and Justice." Nuremberg 2007.

Research Interests and Goals

Legal Theory, Transitional Justice, Post Colonial Theory, Globalization Studies.

Scholarship and Award

  • PhD Scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
  • Renato Treves Grant by the International Institute for the Sociology of Law

Publications

(selection)
  • Olarte, Carolina / Rojas Paez, Gustavo (ed(s).): Spanish Translation of “Law as Resistance: Modernism, Imperialism, Legalism”. Ashgate, Aldershot - Peter Fitzpatrick (2008) [El Derecho como Resistencia: Modernismo, Imperialismo, Legalismo]. Bogotá, Siglo del Hombre, Universidad Libre, Forthcoming 2011.

Curriculum vitae

Since October 2010 PhD Candidate of the International Max Planck Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment (IMPRS REMEP) at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg i.Br., Germany
2007 - 2008 Master of Arts in Sociology of Law. International Institute for the Sociology of Law IISL Onati; Renato Treves Grant; accredited Master of the University of the Basque Country and the University of Milan
1998 - 2006 Attorney at Law. Universidad Libre de Colombia, Bogotá. School of Law and Political Science