How should an emerging democracy cope with the legacy of an ousted repressive regime? How can a new society redress past abuses without creating new injustices, while peacefully integrating the victims and the perpetrators?
By bringing together the collective experience of numerous countries and cultures over the past fifty years, this three-volume compilation of readings provides an invaluable resource for government officials, private organizations, scholars, and others involved in the transitions of today and tomorrow.
Neil J. Kritz is the Associate Vice President of the Institute's Rule of Law Program, which focuses on advancing peace through the development of democratic legal and governmental systems. Kritz conducts ongoing research, writing, and consultation on the question of how societies deal with a legacy of past abuses. He is the editor of a three-volume work, Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, and he has provided advice and organized conferences on questions of war crimes and mass abuses in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and South Africa.
In 1990–91, at the request of the Russian Constitutional Commission, Kritz coordinated two expert reviews of the draft Russian constitution. He directs Institute working groups on humanitarian law, constitution-making, and the administration of justice during peacekeeping operations.
Since 1999, he has chaired a Palestinian-Israeli legal dialogue. At the request of the United States Department of Defense, Kritz prepared a curriculum on international law and the promotion of democracy for use in training United States and foreign military officials.
He has studied and written on the advancement of the rule of law through regional organizations such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Before coming to the Institute, Kritz served as special assistant to the chairman at the Administrative Conference of the United States. He holds a J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law.