Admission requirements
Students should have completed at least one of the following courses:
Introduction to Socio-Legal Studies
Principles of Public International Law
Comparative Justice Systems
Prior completion of (one of) the following courses is recommended, but not required:
Law, Culture and Society
International and Regional Human Rights
Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies
Description
Transitional justice is concerned with how histories that are deemed problematic should be dealt with. Broadly speaking, it’s about how we relate to the part of history we collectively call our own, whoever the “we” may consist of. Throughout history, conflicts of various kinds have come with the infliction of significant harm on various groups of people around the world. What are the legacies of such large-scale abuses? How and by whom should they be addressed?
Transitional justice emerged as a field in the 1990s, in the wake of autocracies falling in South America and Eastern Europe. At that point, leaders in those regions sought to strike a balance between forging democratic governance on the one hand and redressing past wrongs on the other. Around the same time, societies coming out of war in Central America and Africa also sought to remedy the mass harm that had been inflicted, through measures that went beyond criminal trials. In this search for ways of addressing mass harm through measures beyond the courtroom, transitional justice was born as a field of practice, policy, and academic research.
In this course we study such measures, including truth commissions, reparations, and official apologies. We examine what they are meant to achieve, why those goals matter, and the conditions that allow for realising them. We explore the circumstances in which transitional justice measures have been applied and how their use has expanded. Throughout, we ask what purposes it might serve to examine prior acts that currently are deemed to have been wrong. Might doing so add anything of value to our lives in the present moment? If so, what exactly?
Course Objectives
By successfully completing this course, students will be expected to have obtained:
Greater proficiency in certain skills, as manifested in the ability:
To communicate well in speaking and in writing,
To present their ideas clearly,
To research and analyse dynamics in the intersection between law, politics and society,
To reflect on their own values and behaviour and in response to inputs from others, and
Particular forms of knowledge, as shown in the ability:
To compare and contrast ways societies address histories that are deemed problematic,
To assess strengths and weaknesses of different measures of transitional justice, and
To explain dilemmas and trade-offs faced by societies with a history of large-scale wrongdoings.
Timetable
Timetables for courses offered at Leiden University College in 2025-2026 will be published on this page of the e-Prospectus.
Mode of instruction
The course is taught interactively. Key readings will be introduced and discussed in class, where you will be expected to participate actively. Once in the course, you will be part of a group that will give a presentation on a course reading. You will also be expected to participate by writing an individual journal.
After week 4, you will be expected to take stock of what you have learned in a mid-term exam. The final assignment is a timed essay, written under conditions of an exam. With several questions to choose between, the essay will allow you to examine one question about transitional justice in greater depth.
Assessment Method
In-class participation (throughout): 15%
Group presentation (once per student, between Week 2 and 6): 10%
Journal (entries due from Week 2 to 6): 15%
Mid-term exam (Week 5): 25%
Timed essay under exam conditions (Week 8): 35%
Reading list
The reading list will be made available upon commencement of the course.
Registration
Courses offered at Leiden University College (LUC) are usually only open to LUC students and LUC exchange students. Leiden University students who participate in one of the university’s Honours tracks or programmes may register for one LUC course, if availability permits. Registration is coordinated by the Education Coordinator, course.administration@luc.leidenuniv.nl.
Contact
Dr. Ingrid Samset, i.samset@luc.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks
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