Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay: Against Impunity [Paperback]

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.Introduction 1. Theoretical Framework: Critical Junctures, Transitional Justice, and Memory Narratives 2. The Downward Spiral toward Dictatorship 3. Transitional Justice in Argentina (19832012): A Global Protagonist with Its Ups and Downs 4. Reconciliation versus Justice: Entwining Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina 5. Transitional Justice in Uruguay (19852012): Latecomer or Unique? 6. Pacification or Impunity? The Ley de Caducidad and the Interweaving of Memory and Transitional Justice in Uruguay Conclusion

Lessa provides a valuable contribution to thetransitional justice literature by insisting on the importance of memorynarratives in historical processes. She presents a useful starting point forfuture analysis of other transitional justice cases, in the southern cone andbeyond. The book will be of considerable use to transitional justice scholars,human rights practitioners and others interested in the dynamics between memoryand policy in post conflict and transitioned regimes. (Jessica Mecellem,Democratization, Vol. 23 (2), July, 2015)

'Francesca Lessa's book makes a novel contribution to transitional justice. Lessa blends nuanced analysis of political memory of the authoritarian past with an in-depth study of decisions regarding the full range of institutional mechanisms (i.e., truth commissions, trials, amnesty, reparations) used to deal with that past. Her work emphasizes the critical junctures that shape and shift memory narratives and transitional justice mechanisms. Lessa thus examines a dynamic and evolving process in Argentina and Uruguay, introducing a new methodological approach to dealing with past state violence. Her rich qualitative research in the twolĂ$