INTRODUCTION

The lifting of Martial Law in Taiwan in 1987 elicited demands for official recognition of human rights violations committed by the previous authoritarian regime of the Kuomintang (KMT). Although some efforts were made by the KMT government in response to those demands, by 2000 demands for justice were increasingly prevalent. The major criticism being voiced was that the democratic transition in Taiwan was a ‘transition without justice’. As Nai-teh Wu points out, ‘transitional justice in Taiwan was pursued only by providing reparations to the victims but without tackling the greater issues of retributive justice against the perpetrators and of historical rectification.’ For Wu, this is a lack of justice because ‘the question of who was responsible for the political repression and gross violations of human rights has seldom been posed.’

This strong demand for retributive justice in Taiwanese society was finally forged into a political project – the ‘De-Chiang Kai-shek’ movement – to impute culpability to those deemed responsible for atrocities. However, instead of satisfying these demands, this project only revealed a diversity of opinions and generated even wider debate. Some criticised the movement for failing to articulate an adequate retributive approach, dressing up as justice a primitive impulse of revenge. Others expressed concern about the whole approach of searching for retributive justice in a period of democratic transition, arguing that the emphasis on past wrongs that guides the pursuit of retribution had the potential to polarise an already divided society. They worried that it could itself become ‘a stumbling block for consolidating democracy’ in Taiwan.

The controversy aroused by this project in Taiwan echoes broader normative concerns about the necessity and legitimacy of retribution for past wrongs as a requirement for transitional justice. Some theorists, as pointed out by Ruti Teitel, claim that retribution through ‘successor trials’ plays a vital role in laying the basis for a new liberal order: