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'Is little to be gained by lamenting the past?' : Assessing the extent to which addressing the past legacy of the South African and Kenyan judiciaries by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicia

The purpose of this dissertation is to determine whether it is important for the future development of legal systems in post-authoritarian or post-conflict states to confront the unjust past legacy of their judiciaries. In order to determine this, one has to assess the extent to which addressing the...

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Main Author: Boast, Jessica
Other Authors: Corder, Hugh
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Political Studies 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Boast, Jessica
author2 Corder, Hugh
author_browse Boast, Jessica
Corder, Hugh
author_facet Corder, Hugh
Boast, Jessica
author_sort Boast, Jessica
collection Thesis
description The purpose of this dissertation is to determine whether it is important for the future development of legal systems in post-authoritarian or post-conflict states to confront the unjust past legacy of their judiciaries. In order to determine this, one has to assess the extent to which addressing the unjust past legacy of such judiciaries, by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicial reform is these contexts. This is accomplished by firstly, analysing the contribution of the TRC Legal Hearing to judicial reform in post-Apartheid South Africa. Secondly, the contribution which the vetting of the Kenyan judiciary made to achieving judicial reform in Kenya after the 2007 Election crisis is assessed. In both circumstances, the final contributions of these transitional justice mechanisms to achieving the objectives of judicial reform are weighed against the contributions of other mechanisms. It is argued that both the transitional justice mechanisms of truth commissions and judicial vetting contributed to achieving objectives of judicial reform in South Africa and Kenya. However, the extent of the contributions differed in each case because of unique political factors. It is concluded that confronting the unjust past legacy of judiciaries in post-authoritarian and post-conflict states is indeed important for the future development of their legal systems.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
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license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Political Studies
publisherStr Department of Political Studies
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/6817 'Is little to be gained by lamenting the past?' : Assessing the extent to which addressing the past legacy of the South African and Kenyan judiciaries by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicia Boast, Jessica Corder, Hugh The purpose of this dissertation is to determine whether it is important for the future development of legal systems in post-authoritarian or post-conflict states to confront the unjust past legacy of their judiciaries. In order to determine this, one has to assess the extent to which addressing the unjust past legacy of such judiciaries, by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicial reform is these contexts. This is accomplished by firstly, analysing the contribution of the TRC Legal Hearing to judicial reform in post-Apartheid South Africa. Secondly, the contribution which the vetting of the Kenyan judiciary made to achieving judicial reform in Kenya after the 2007 Election crisis is assessed. In both circumstances, the final contributions of these transitional justice mechanisms to achieving the objectives of judicial reform are weighed against the contributions of other mechanisms. It is argued that both the transitional justice mechanisms of truth commissions and judicial vetting contributed to achieving objectives of judicial reform in South Africa and Kenya. However, the extent of the contributions differed in each case because of unique political factors. It is concluded that confronting the unjust past legacy of judiciaries in post-authoritarian and post-conflict states is indeed important for the future development of their legal systems. 2014-09-02T09:50:28Z 2014-09-02T09:50:28Z 2014 Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6817 eng application/pdf Department of Political Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Boast, Jessica
'Is little to be gained by lamenting the past?' : Assessing the extent to which addressing the past legacy of the South African and Kenyan judiciaries by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicia
thesis_degree_str Master's
title 'Is little to be gained by lamenting the past?' : Assessing the extent to which addressing the past legacy of the South African and Kenyan judiciaries by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicia
title_full 'Is little to be gained by lamenting the past?' : Assessing the extent to which addressing the past legacy of the South African and Kenyan judiciaries by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicia
title_fullStr 'Is little to be gained by lamenting the past?' : Assessing the extent to which addressing the past legacy of the South African and Kenyan judiciaries by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicia
title_full_unstemmed 'Is little to be gained by lamenting the past?' : Assessing the extent to which addressing the past legacy of the South African and Kenyan judiciaries by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicia
title_short 'Is little to be gained by lamenting the past?' : Assessing the extent to which addressing the past legacy of the South African and Kenyan judiciaries by means of transitional justice mechanisms, has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicia
title_sort is little to be gained by lamenting the past assessing the extent to which addressing the past legacy of the south african and kenyan judiciaries by means of transitional justice mechanisms has contributed to achieving the objectives of judicia
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6817
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