Redemption for Wrongdoing

Jon Elster
Additional contact information
Jon Elster: Collège de France and International Institute for Peace Research, Oslo

Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2006, vol. 50, issue 3, 324-338

Abstract: The prosecution of wrongdoers in transitional justice differs from ordinary criminal justice in that defendants can appeal to an argument from redemption: even if they admit to wrongdoing as agents of the autocratic regime during one period of its existence, they may receive lenient treatment on grounds of their later acts of resistance to the regime. Trials and purges of collaborators in France and Norway after World War II provide many examples. The moral and sometimes the legal efficacy of this argument is undermined, however, if the later acts were undertaken for the purpose of redemption. It may also be undermined if the earlier acts were so grave that nothing can wipe them out.

Keywords: transitional justice; trials; World War II; redemption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022002706286953 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jocore:v:50:y:2006:i:3:p:324-338

DOI: 10.1177/0022002706286953

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Conflict Resolution from Peace Science Society (International)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().