ABSTRACT
So-called transitional justice has become more universal and in doing so now approximates a more general sense of justice, law, or the rule of law. The inquiry of the essay proceeds by way of a brief analysis of ‘transitional justice’ and related qualifying terms, such as ‘restorative’, ‘reconciliatory’, and ‘retroactive’. I consider the plausibility of identifying, deflating, or reducing each of them, with, or, to, the rule of law, or other general justicial notions. I illustrate the analysis, in a condensed form, through a case study of the Preamble to the Carcross/Tagish First Nation Constitution, a particular situation in the context of indigenous politics on the Canadian scene, one that focuses on negotiation of land-claims and self-government agreements in an historical epoch of continuing colonization and partial decolonization. I conclude by proposing that there is positive promise in the perpetual reconstruction of justice, or constitutionalizing.
