ABSTRACT
Transitional justice (TJ) has grown rapidly as a field of study and practice to the point where it is now taken for granted whenever a society emerges from repression or violent conflict. This chapter explores the place of economic and social issues in TJ and the current contestations as to whether TJ should be reconceptualised so as to more comprehensively address what is meaningful for affected communities rather than persisting as a prescriptive global project. It looks into the role of socioeconomic factors in repression and violent conflict, war economies and the socioeconomic impacts of violence. There is not a single, universally agreed definition of TJ but the fundamental issue is one of how societies emerging from violence and/or repression deal with the legacy from the violence as they transition into the post-conflict or post-repression era. Practitioners tend to operationalise causes of violence through the lens of human rights and other international humanitarian laws.
