FALL 2001
This information effective for Fall 2001.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Legal Studies
107. After Evil: The Political Morality of
Survivorship and Recovery
Instructor: R. Meister
Office: Kresge 228, Phone 459-4563
Office hours: Th 1:15 - 2:15
E-mail: meister@cats.ucsc.edu
What does it mean to live in the aftermath of a morally
unacceptable past? Is peace among the survivors of evil inevitably
(and merely) a compromise between the grievances of former victims
and the fear on the part former perpetrators and their beneficiaries
that reprisals will occur? Would a just peace require the
continuation of a morally legitimate struggle by other, less violent,
means until the ongoing effects of evil have been eradicated? Or is
reconciliation itself the morally appropriate response to an evil
that has been defeated?
The course will draw on a variety of sources to understand better
the metaphors of both war and peace as potentially appropriate
attitudes toward evils past and present. Building on this foundation,
we will explore the moral logic of the "human rights culture" that is
the stated goal of liberal transitions in post-traumatic regimes. Our
focus will be on relations between the continuing beneficiaries of
past evil in such societies and those who claim to speak for the
victims. Does the achievement of consensus that past was evil require
an implicit agreement that evil is now past, and hence that its
beneficiaries may be allowed to keep their gains? What are the moral
and constitutional constraints placed on "nations in recovery" by the
public commitment to create an official version of a past that must
be remembered so that it will not be repeated? Is it possible to make
a meaningful distinction between paranoid and reparative forms of
national recovery?
The prime historical examples we will consider are post-apartheid
South Africa, the post-slavery US, post-genocide Rwanda, and
Post-Holocaust Germany, Israel, and the US. In conjunction with
particular issues we will also touch upon post-authoritarian Latin
America, post-Soviet Eastern Europe, and post-militaristic Japan. Our
overall approach, however, will be to use particular national
histories to explore the implicit moral logic of the promised
"Century of Never Again."
Supplemental Readings and Resources: Neil Kritz, ed.,
Transitional Justice, 3 vols., provides an essential
compendium of documents and country studies relevant to this course.
Another useful resource is Naomi Roht-Arriaza, Impunity and Human
Rights in International Law and Practice. Rather than assign
these very costly books, I have included reference to the relevant
sections under the category of "Further Reading." The website for
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(www.truth.org.za/) has debates and speeches by the major
participants, full transcripts of important hearings, all official
documents of the Commission, submissions by the major SA political
parties, links to their websites, and links to major South African
newspapers. The best searchable version of the TRC Report is
available at www.struth.org.za/,
which is maintained by the original webmaster of the TRC site.
For students interested in other issues the Internet has vast in
the field of human rights and transitional justice. The following
websites are excellent places to start your research: University of
Minnesota Human Rights Library (www1.umn.edu/humanrts/);
Diana (www.law.uc.edu/Diana/);
UN Human Rights site (www.un.org/rights/);
International Court of Justice (www.igc.org/cij/);
European Court of Human Rights (www.dhcour.coe.fr/);
Coalition for International Justice (www.icj-cij.org/);
and AAAS Science and Human Rights Program (http://shr.aaas.org/dhr.htm).
The United States Institute of Peace (www.usip.org)
sponsors conferences and publications in this area. For a primer on
human rights research, see (www.law.harvard.edu/programs/HRP/Publications/research.html).
Requirements: Attendance at lectures and sections is
mandatory. Two formal papers will be required (in addition to
informal presentations in section). The first essay (c. 5pp.) will be
on some topic related to the conceptualization of transitional
justice. As a final paper, students will be expected to critically
analyze the means by which some particular nation has dealt with the
issues addressed in the course. If you wish to write on some relevant
topic or nation not covered in the syllabus, please consult me or
your TA for approval and references. (I have a large indexed database
of bibliographical materials, and may be able to save you
considerable time as you begin your research.)
Syllabus
Key:
*=Electronic Reserves (Available at
http://eres.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/eres/viewcourse.pl?POLI107_MEISTER)
**=Course Reader (Available at the Campus Copy Center)
***=Library Reserves (McHenry)
+=Available for Purchase (Available at Baytree or online)
A. Introduction: Putting Evil in the Past
1. Righteous Struggle and the Problem of Closure (A
Framework)
- Meister, "Ways of Winning: The Costs of Moral Victory in
Transitional Regimes"*
- Shklar, Faces of Injustice, ch. 1, "Giving Injustice
Its Due"+
- Rosenberg, "Confronting the Painful Past"**
- Ash, "The Truth About Dictatorship"*
- Saadeh, Germany's Second Chance** (Introduction)
- Tutu, "Forward by Chairperson," Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of South Africa Report, vol. 1, chs. 1-2*
- Iklé, Every War Must End, esp. chs. 1, 4-5
***
-
- Further Reading:
- Meister, "Forgiving and Forgetting: Lincoln and the
Politics of National Recovery"*
- Kritz, ed., Transitional Justice vol. I, chs.
1-2
- Schmitt, The Concept of the Political: 19-79
2. Justice as the End of Struggle: The Case of South Africa
(Guest: Prof. S.J. Terreblanche, Stellenbosch University)
- Brooks, ed., "When Sorry Isn't Enough", Parts I and 8+
- "A Public Discussion on the Just War Debate and
Reconciliation," 6 May 1997*
- Terreblanche, Testimony before the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission**
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
Report, vol. 4, ch. 2*
- Verwoerd, "Justice after Apartheid? Reflections on the South
African Truth and Reconciliation Commission"*
- "Forum on Reconstruction and Economic Justice"*
- Mamdani, "Reconciliation or Justice"*
- Mamdani, "When Does Reconciliation Turn into a Denial of
Justice?"*
- Public Discussion: "Transforming Society Through
Reconciliation: Myth or Reality"*
-
- Further Reading:
- Terreblanche "Empowerment in Context: The Struggle of
Hegemony in South Africa."***
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
Report, vol. 5, ch. 8, §14, ch. 9, § 108*
3. Justice and/or Reconciliation
- Shklar, "The Sense of Injustice" in Faces of
Injustice+
- Feher, "Terms of Reconciliation" in Hesse and Post, eds.,:
325-38+
- Ash, "South Africa: True Confessions"*
- Rosenberg, "Recovering from Apartheid (South Africa's Truth
and Reconciliation Commission)"**
- Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness, chs.
4-6.
- Krog, Country of My Skull, chs. 9-12+
- Tutu, "Press Club Speech"*
-
- Further Reading:
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
Report, vol. 2, chs. 1, 2, 4*
- Gobodo-Madikizela, "Reenactment of old identities &
implications for reconciliation"*
- ------ , "On reconciliation and reflecting on the Truth
Commission"*
- "Justice in Transition" (booklet explaining the role of the
TRC)*
- Section from the Interim Constitution which deals with the
creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission*
- Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act,
1995*
- Explanatory memorandum to the Parliamentary Bill*
- Breytenbach, The Memory of Birds in a Time of
Revolution***
- Mayers, Wars and Peace, chs. 1, 4***
- Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe***
B. Moral Logics of Survivorship and Recovery
4. "Never Again"/"A New Beginning"? Post-Traumatic
Encounters
- Gourevitch, "Letter from Rwanda: After the Genocide,"**
- "The Return: … Killers and Genocide Survivors …
Forced to Live Together," **
- Stern, from The Whitewashing of the Yellow Badge,
Intro, chs. 1, 2, 8**
- Stern, "German-Jewish Relations in the Postwar Period: …
Antisemitic and Philosemitic Discourse,"**
- Alford, Melanie Klein and Critical Social Theory:
29-42, 170-85**
5. Victimhood: Moral Damage, Moral Victory and the Right to
Rule
- Levi, The Drowned and the Saved: chs. 1-3 (chs.5, 7
recommended) +
- Wood, Vectors of Memory, "The Victim's Resentment"
+
- Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness, chs. 1-2
+
- Arendt, Eichmann in Jersualem, chs. 1, 7, 15, Epilogue
+
- Segev, The Seventh Million, chs. 18-20**
- Novick, "Self-Hating Jewess Writes Pro-Eichmann Series," from
The Holocaust in American Life**
- Krog, Country of My Skull, chs. 3-5+
- Hinton, Fanshen, vii,
400-16,473-5,495-508,548-66,601-13**
-
- Further Reading:
- Kritz, ed., Transitional Justice, vol. 1,
introduction; ch. 4***
- Améry, At the Mind's Limits***
- Goodman, Faultlines: Journeys in the New South
Africa: "Victorious Victim," "The Book of Apartheid is
Still Open" ***
6. Perpetrators: Guilt, Rage, and Punishment
- Nino, Radical Evil on Trial, introduction, ch. 1**
- Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners, chs. 2,
15**
- Neier, "Rethinking Truth, Justice, and Guilt after Bosnia and
Rwanda" in Hesse and Post, eds. 39-52+
- Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem, chs. 2-3+
- Murphy and Hampton, Forgiveness and Mercy, chs
1-2***
- Murphy, "Forgiveness, Mercy, and the Retributive
Emotions"**
- Morris, "Murphy on Forgiveness"**
- Morris, "Guilt and Suffering"**
- Teitel, "Transitional Justice", Part II*
- TRC, "Seminar on Perpetrators"*
-
- Further Reading:
- Roht-Arriaza, Impunity and Human Rights in International
Law and Practice
- Goodman, Faultlines: Journeys in the New South
Africa, "The Vanquished Assassin"***
- Kritz, ed., Transitional Justice, vol. 1, chs. 4, 6;
7
7. Beneficiaries and Bystanders: Identifying with the Victim
- Malan, My Traitor's Heart: A South African Exile Returns to
Face his Country, His Tribe and His Conscience (at least Bk.
II)+
- Krog, Country of My Skull (chs. 1-2)+
- DeLoria, Playing Indian: Introduction, chs. 4, 6,
Conclusion**
- Morris, "Non-Moral Guilt" and "Shared Guilt"**
-
- Further Reading:
- Goodman, Faultlines: Journeys in the New South
Africa: "The Odyssey of the Verwoerds"***
8. Survivors: Narratives of National Recovery
- Meister, "Forgiving and Forgetting: Lincoln and the Politics
of National Recovery" in Hesse and Post, eds.,: 136-76+*
- Teitel, "Transitional Justice", Parts III and IV*
- Kateb, "On Political Evil"**
- Shklar, "The Liberalism of Fear"**
- Brown, "Reflections on Tolerance in an Age of Identity"*
- Schmitt, The Concept of the Political: 19-79+
C. Identity, Injury, and Guilt in Post-traumatic States
9. Collective Memory, Historical Reconstruction, and the Question
of Truth
- Rose, "Introduction: States of Fantasy"**
- Said, "Fantasy's Role in the Making of Nations", Review of
Rose,"**
- Brown, "Wounded Attachments" (from States of
Injury)**
- White, "Historical Emplotment and the Problem of Truth," in
Friedländer, ed., Probing the Limits of
Representation**
- Halbwachs, "The Reconstruction of the Past" and "The
Localization of Memory" **
- Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the
Making of the Israeli Nation, Part I***
- Schwartz, The Curse of Cain: 1-20, 39-62, 120-33,
143-76+
- Anderson, Imagined Communities, chs. 8-9, 11**
- Taylor, "Why Do Nations Have to Become States," in
Reconciling the Solitudes**
- Lamey, "Francophonia Forever: The Contradiction in Taylor's
Politics of Recognition" TLS 7/23/99: 12-15**
- Benjamin, "Theses on History" in Illuminations**
-
- Further Reading:
- Meister, "The Revolutionary Mystique" in Political
Identity*** (and online)
- Buruma, Wages of Guilt, "History on Trial" and
"Textbook Resistance"***
- Maier, The Unmasterable Past***
- Friedländer, ed., Probing the Limits of
Representation*** (Anderson, Jay, Diner, LaCapra)***
- Wyschogrod, An Ethics of Remembering***
- Irwin-Zarecka, Frames of Remembrance***
10. Monuments and Memorials: The Culture of National
Reidentification
- Levinson, Written in Stone+
- Savage, "The Politics of Memory: Black Emancipation and the
Civil War Monument"**
- Koonz, "Between Memory and Oblivion: Concentration Camps in
German Memory"**
- Kramer, "Germany Struggles With Its Past and a Proposed
Holocaust Memorial"**
- Craig, "The Inability to Mourn", Review of Buruma, Wages of
Guilt*
- Freud, "Mourning and Melancholia"**
- Klein, "The Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States" and
"Mourning and Manic Depressive States"**
- Abraham and Torok, "The Illness of Mourning," "Mourning
or Melancholia," "The Lost Object, Me" in The Shell and
the Kernel **
-
- Further Reading:
- Buruma, "Memorials, Museums and Monuments in The Wages
of Guilt, "***
- Young, Holocaust Memorials and Their Meaning, chs.
1, 2, 5, 6***
- Gillis, Commemorations***
- Nuttall and Coetzee, eds., Negotiating the
Past***
- Abraham and Torok, "Secrets and the Phantom: The Theory of
Transgenerational Haunting," in The Shell and the
Kernel, Part V***
- Mitscherlich and Mitscherlich, The Inability to Mourn:
Principles of Collective Behavior***
- Santner, Stranded Objects: Mourning, Memory, and Film in
Postwar Germany***
- Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Part IV***
11. Judgment or Impunity?
- Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness, ch. 3+
- Roht-Arriaza, "Punishment, Redress and Pardon" and "Combating
Impunity"**
- Hess and Post, "Introduction" in Hesse and Post, eds.:
13-38+
- Osiel, "Making Memory Publicly" in Hesse and Post, eds.:
217-62+
- Teitel, "Bringing the Messiah through Law" in Hesse and Post,
eds., 177-94+
- Neier, "The Trouble with Amnesty" and "Guilt" in War
Crimes**
- Zalaquett, "Confronting Human Rights Violations Committed by
Former Governments" in Kritz, I, pp. 3-31***
- ----------, "Balancing Ethical Imperatives and Political
Constraints" in Kritz, I, pp. 203-7***
- Nino, Radical Evil on Trial, chs. 4-5 ***
- or
- Malamud-Goti, Game Without End, Introduction, chs.
4-5*** (NB Nino and Malamud reach opposing conclusions.)
-
- Further Reading:
- Osiel, Mass Atrocity, Collective Memory and the
Law***
- Neier, War Crimes, esp. chs. 13-15***
- Weschler, A Miracle, A Universe***
- Rieff, Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the
West***
- Kritz, ed., Transitional Justice, vol. 1, chs. 4, 6;
vol. 3, ch. 4
- Roht-Arriaza, Impunity and Human Rights in International
Law and Practice
12. Pain, Truth, and Healing
- Minow, "Between Vengeance and Forgiveness", ch. 4+-
- Truth Commissions: A Comparative Assessment (Harvard Law
School)
www.law.harvard.edu/programs/HRP/Publications/truth1.html
- Roht-Arriaza, "The Need for Moral Reconstruction in the Wake
of Human Rights Violations: Interview with Zalaquett" in Hesse and
Post, eds.: 195-213+
- Brooks, "The Uses of Melodrama" in The Melodramatic
Imagination: 11-20.
- Smit, "Confession-Guilt-Truth-and-Forgiveness in the Christian
Tradition"**
- du Toit, ""Dealing with the Past"**
- Villa-Vicencio, "Accepting Responsibility"**
- Berlant, "The True Subject of Feeling: Pain, Privacy and
Politics" in Sarat and Kearns, ed., Cultural Pluralism,
Identity Politics and the Law: 49-84**
- Scarry, "The Difficulty of Imagining Other Persons" in Hesse
and Post, eds.:277-312+
- --------, The Body in Pain, chs. 1-3***
- Wollheim, The Thread of Life, chs. 4-6, ***
("Experiential Memory," "The Tyranny of the Past", "The Examined
Life")***
-
- Further Reading:
- Bentley, "Melodrama" in The Life of Drama***
- Tutu, The Rainbow People of God, Parts V-VI***
- Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, chs. 13-17***
- Kritz, ed., Transitional Justice, vol. 1, ch. 5,
vol. 3, chs. 1-2.
- Asmal, et al., Reconciliation through Truth: A Reckoning
of Apartheid's Criminali Governance, chs. 1-6***
- Hayner, "Fifteen Truth Commissions:" in Kritz, vol. 1:
225-261***
- Report of the Chilean National Commission on Truth and
Reconciliation in Chile, Introduction, Part I, Part IV***
13. Reparative Justice: A Path to Closure?
- Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness, ch. 5+ ,
- Brooks, When Sorry Isn't Enough, chs. 2, 8-10. 35-6,
35-6, 42-6, 53-65, 60-73+
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
Report, vol. 1, ch. 5; vol. 5, ch. 5*
- Kritz, ed., Transitional Justice, vol. 1, ch. 9; vol.
3, ch. 6***
- Soyinka, "Reparations, Truth, and Reconciliation" in The
Burden of Memory and the Muse of Forgiveness***
-
- Further Reading:
- Shriver, An Ethic For Enemies***
- Bittker, The Case for Black Reparations, chs. 1-3,
10-11, appendices A and B ***
D. Nations in Recovery
14. The United States: Unfinished Recovery and the
Constitution
- Meister, "Sojourners, and Survivors: Two Logics of
Constitutional Protection"*
- Binder, "Did the Slaves Author the Thirteenth Amendment? An
Essay in Redemptive History"*
- Zeitz, "Rebel Redemption Redux"*
- Amar, The Bill of Rights, chs. 8-9, 11-12***.
- Belz, Abraham Lincoln, Constitutionalism, and Equal Rights
in the Civil War Era, chs. 3, 6, 8-9***
- Holmes, "Gag Rules, or the Politics of Omission"**
- Meister, "State and Society' from Political
Identity*
-
- Further Reading:
- Wills, "Lincoln's Greatest Speech"*
- Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American
Memory
- Kaczorowski, "'To Begin the Nation Anew': Congress,
Citizenship and Civil Rights after the Civil War"***
- McPherson, The Second American Revolution***
- ---------- , Drawn with the Sword:
- Ackerman, "We the People: Transformations"
- Peterson, Lincoln in American Memory***
- Foner, Reconstruction***
- Douglass, "Reconstruction"*
- Carter, When the War Was Over: The Failure of
Self-Reconstruction in the South***
15. South Africa: Confronting the Past?
- Adam and Moodley, The Negotiated Revolution, chs.
2-3**
- Krog, Country of My Skull, chs. 5-8+
- Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa
Report, vol. I, chs. 1-2, 4-5; vol.2, ch. 1, vol. 3, chs. 1-2,
4, vol. 5, chs. 6-9 "Minority Position" and "Response"*
-
- Further Reading:
- Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness***
- Tutu, The Rainbow People of God***
- Battle, Reconciliation: The Unbuntu Philosophy of
Desmond Tutu***
- Meredith, Coming to Terms: South Africa's Search for
Truth***
- Sparks, Tomorrow is Another Country***
- Waldmeier, Anatomy of a Miracle***
- Adam and Moodley, Negotiated Revolution***
- Adam, Slabbert, and Moodley, Comrades in
Business***
- Boraine, et al., Dealing with the Past***
16. Rwanda: Victims as Victors?
- Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be
Killed With Our Families +
- Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers+
- Mamdani, "When Does a Settler Become a Native?"*
- Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness, ch. 11**
-
- Further Reading:
- Uvin, Aiding Violence***
- Prunier, The Rwanda Crisis: A History of
Genocide***
- Malkki, Purity and Exile: Violence, Memory, and National
Cosmology, Among Hutu Refugeesi***
17. Germany/Israel/US: Internalizing the Holocaust
- Saadeh, Germany's Second Chance, introduction, chs. 1,
4**
Young, Texture of Memory, Part I***
Joffe, "Goldhagen in Germany"*
Elon, "Antagonist as Liberator"*
-
- Segev, The Seventh Million, Parts III and VIII**
Rose, "In the Land of Israel" and "Just, Lasting, and
Comprehensive" from States of Fantasy**
Young, Texture of Memory, Part III***
or
Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of
Israeli National Tradition, Part II***
-
- Novick, The Holocaust in American Life, Introduction,
chs. 10-12**
- Young, Texture of Memory, Part IV***
-
- Further Reading:
- Buruma, Wages of Guilt, "Auschwitz," "A Normal
Country" and "Clearing up the Ruins"***
- Kramer, The Politics of Memory: Looking for Germany in
the New Germany***
- Kröndorfer, Remembrance and Reconciliation:
Encounters Between Young Jews and Germans***
- Herf, Divided Memory, chs. 1, 6, 8-10***
- Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab
Conflict***
- M. Benvenisti, Intimate Enemies***
- E. Benvenisti, The International Law of
Occupation***
18. Justice as Afterlife: The Sublimation, Reparation, or
Denial?
- Meister, "Justice as Afterlife"*
- Seery, Political Theory for Mortals, ch. 5**
- Margalit, The Decent Society, Parts I and III***
- Hampshire, "The Reason Why Not", review of Scanlon, "What We
Owe One Another"*
- Hampshire, Justice is Conflict***
- Alford, "Melanie Klein and Critical Social Theory," ch.
5**
- Wollheim, The Thread of Life, chs. 7-8 ("The Growth of
Moral Sense" and "Overcoming the Past")***
Available for purchase:
The following books have been ordered at the Bay Tree Bookstore.
They are also available for purchase from the major online
sources.
- Brooks, When Sorry Isn't Enough
- Shklar, Faces of Injustice
- Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We will be
Killed with our Families
- Malan, My Traitor's Heart
- Levi, The Drowned and the Saved
- Krog, Country of My Skull
- Hesse and Post, eds., Human Rights in Political
Transitions
- Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness
- Levinson, Written in Stone
- Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers
- Schwartz, The Curse of Cain
- Schmitt, The Concept of the Political
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