Was the Pinochet case in Chile an indicator of a trend, or an exception in Latin American justice? Why have several such attempts at late justice occurred so long after the transition from dictatorship?

These and other questions are being examined in an innovative SandPit on ‘Post-Transitional Justice’ organised by the University of Ulster’s Transitional Justice Institute and Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile, at Dalriada House, Jordanstown Campus on Friday 21 January.

Amongst the participants will be scholars from Chile, Germany (Philipps University Marburg), and the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). The University of Minnesota will also be video-linked.

Globally this SandPit is  the first of its kind in the transitional justice field. As the co-organiser, TJI Professor Colm Campbell explained:

"The event is highly innovative in both format and substance. At conferences, the intellectual contribution tends to be defined in advance by inputs - conference papers with little time for discussion. By contrast, in the SandPit the focus is on outputs, generated by participants playing with ideas in a semi-structured environment. We will be looking at data from Latin America, but also at some fascinating material from the Federal Republic of Germany."

Co-Organiser Dr. Cath Collins, (Diego Portales University) said:

‘The adoption of a new conceptual framework, that of post-transitional Justice, seems to offer improved prospects for understanding current patterns of change and stasis with with regard to transitional human rights settlements in Latin America. This framework highlights the analytical and practical importante of the law as an arena of state-citizen interaction in democracies’

Professor Colm Campbell, Transitional Justice InstitutePhone: +44 (0)2890 366577: Email: c.campbell@ulster.ac.uk

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