Introduction

In order to understand the diverse transitional justice mechanisms discussed in this book, we need to look at developments at the international and regional level as well as within individual countries. The doctrine of complementarity built into the statute of the International Criminal Court can be seen as a metaphor for a much broader form of interaction of the international and domestic legal and political spheres in the area of transitional justice. Developments at the international level depend upon processes at the domestic level, and vice versa.

In addition to discussing the case of Argentina, we will also sketch out some broad international and regional trends in the area of transitional justice. These trends make clear that dramatic changes have occurred in the world with regard to accountability for past human rights abuses. This trend is what Lutz and Sikkink have called “The Justice Cascade” – a rapid shift towards new norms and practices of providing more accountability for human rights violations. The case of Argentina is particularly interesting because far from being a passive participant in or recipient of this justice cascade, Argentina was very often an instigator of particular new mechanisms within the cascade. The case illustrates the potential for global human rights protagonism at the periphery of the system. The Argentine case also supports the general thesis of the volume that multiple transitional justice mechanisms are frequently used in a single case.