ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the subject of punishment in a process of transition. It also explains a sophisticated and important comparison between the aims and scope of retributive and transitional justice. It examines the potential of transitional policies to bring about lasting structural change and to truly mold a new polity's economic and constitutional institutions. The book explores the nature and limits of political reconciliation, which many consider as the telos or aim of transitional policies. It also explores the relationship between transitional justice and artistic expressions and practices. The book considers how newly established democracies should deal with architecture created by a deposed authoritarian regime. It offers philosophical accounts of key operative concepts pertaining to transitions: time, genocide, and political repair. It provides an important philosophical account of the under theorized and underutilized transitional instrument of reparations.
