Between retribution and restoration: Justice and the TRC (South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission)

How may a society, in a morally defensible way, confront a past of injustic e and suffering, and seek to break the spell of violence and disregard for human life? I begin by demonstrating the relevance of this question to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and I draw attention to Andre du Toit's long-standing interest in ways in which truth commissions m ay function to consolidate political change. In the second section of the a rticle, I argue that truth commissions should be regarded as a defensible m oral compromise between the values of justice and social unity, and I criti cize claims that truth commissions promote transitional justice, when that is understood as a distinctive conception of justice that emerges in circum stance of regime transition. In the third section, I criticize the claim th at truth commissions are not a moral compromise at all but embody a superio r, restorative conception of justice. I conclude by showing why retribution is required by criminal justice, and why truth commissions must be seen, n ot as an end in themselves, but as institutions whose function is to emphas izes the importance of the rule of law, normal criminal justice, and legal recognition.