Uladzislau Belavusau (T.M.C. Asser Institute – University of Amsterdam) has posted Review of a Book by Cheng-Yi Huang (ed.). Constitutionalizing Transitional Justice: How Constitutions and Constitutional Courts Deal with Past Atrocity (Routledge, 2024). (International Journal of Constitutional Law, 24(3), 2026 (accepted and forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
A paradox at the heart of contemporary constitutionalism is that, despite its inherently forward-looking and aspirational orientation, constitutional courts must continually anchor their legitimacy in constant engagement with the past: not as historians, but either as architects of political transition or as interpreters of the foundational lessons, symbols, and doctrines bequeathed by constitutional “(grand-)fathers”. It is precisely this tension that animates “Constitutionalizing Transitional Justice”, a volume thoughtfully edited by a Taiwanese scholar Cheng-Yi Huang and reviewed in this essay. The book appears at a moment when transitional justice unfolds not in isolation, but under the shadow of assertive authoritarian powers whose geopolitical ambitions – whether Russian revanchism, China’s threats to Taiwan, or North Korea’s perpetual militarism – reshape the conditions and vulnerabilities of democratic transitions. Huang offers a global tour – Chile, Colombia, Hungary, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States, and post-Soviet states – while asking a deceptively simple question: What happens when the constitutional order itself becomes the primary site for confronting past atrocity?