Transitional Justice and Cognitive-Behavioural Studies
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
This chapter presents the contemporary understanding involving the foundations or‘ pillars’ of transitional justice (TJ)—namely truth-seeking, prosecution (or ‘accountability), reparations, and institutional reforms or guarantees of non-repetition (including memorialization); an analysis of the genealogy of the evolution of this field; and an examination of various potential interactions between cognitive-behavioural studies and TJ processes. The chapter argues that while TJ theory involves psychological and cognitive processes, TJ scholarship has yet to meaningfully incorporate the results of empirical findings and theoretical insights drawn from cognitive-behavioural studies. More specifically, Teitel and Shankar analyse how existing cognitive schemas impact expectations regarding truth commissions, the influence of witnesses’ memories on criminal prosecutions, the influence of group identity on the perception of reparations, and how certain framing may affect guarantees of non-repetition. The discussion of these four issues is accompanied by some suggestions concerning the design of TJ processes, as well as some observations regarding the potential limitations of using cognitive-behavioural literature to shape TJ processes. The analysis offered of the specific links between TJ pillars and cognitive- behavioural studies should be read as an example of a broad range of possible interrelationships between these two fields.
Recommended Citation
Teitel, Ruti G, and Shreya Shankar, 'Transitional Justice and Cognitive-Behavioural Studies', in Anne van Aaken, and Moshe Hirsch (eds), International Legal Theory and the Cognitive Turn (Oxford, 2025; online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 Apr. 2025), https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198909293.003.0014.