Introduction

The dilemma: justice vs. peace ‘No justice, no peace.’ From the riots in Los Angeles following the first verdict in the Rodney King beating case in 1992 to the outcry in England over the botched inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, there is a widespread intuition that justice and peace are inextricably linked. Furthermore, a vast literature expanding upon this intuition has developed.2 Where there is justice, there can be peace, and peace justice; but the absence of one may necessarily result in the absence of another. Can one imagine a generally functioning court system such as that of the USA in the context of civil or external war where stability is gone and national security supersedes individual security? And, after the riots in Los Angeles, can one imagine peace following what appears to be a gross miscarriage of justice? In stable, established democracies such as the USA or the UK, the linkage of peace and justice appears quite logical.