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15 Ariz. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 753 (1998)
South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission: The Conflict between Individual Justice and National Healing in the Post-Apartheid Age

handle is hein.journals/ajicl15 and id is 777 raw text is: SOUTH AFRICA'S TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL JUSTICE AND NATIONAL HEALING IN THE POST-APARTHEID AGE Paul Lansing and Julie C. King* I. INTRODUCTION The concept of justice may serve several different purposes. For example, it may promote punishment, rehabilitation, retribution, incapacitation, and deterrence.' Implementation of justice is limited, however, by the concepts of legality, culpability, proportionality, liberty, and privacy.2 Justice can be served through several different means, depending on the goal or goals ofjustice we are trying to achieve in a particular circumstance.3 Typically, the focus when thinking of justice is on addressing the particular wrong committed, with thought sometimes given to prevention of future wrongs.4 In certain situations, however, the focus of justice is not on the individual wrong so much as it is on how individual wrongs fit into a larger scheme. This is often the case when dealing with the crimes and wrongs committed during a state of war.' Approaches to dealing with war crimes have taken many forms, including the full prosecution and punishment of crimes, as in the Nuremberg Trials that took place after World War 11.6 In contrast, the approach has sometimes been one of amnesty, particularly when the conflict involved a civil war.7 In recent years South Africa has instituted a system for addressing crimes, particularly human rights violations, committed during the former era of apartheid. The system focuses on truth and amnesty as a means of effecting * Paul Lansing is Professor of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Graduate Diploma in International Studies, 1973, Stockholm University; J.D., 1971, University of Illinois; B.A., 1968, City University of New York; Former Member of the Law Faculty, University of South Africa. Julie C. King is a J.D. Candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; B.A., 1991, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1. See WAYNE R. LAFAVE & AUSTIN W. SCOTT, JR., SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW § 1.5 (1986). 2. See id. § 2.14. 3. See id. § 1.5. 4. See id. 5. See Richard J. Goldstone, Justice as a Tool for Peace-Making: Truth Conunissions and International Criminal Tribunals, 28 N.Y.U. J. INT'L L. & POL. 485, 485-86 (1996). 6. See id. at 486-89. 7. See Robert Meister, Sojourners and Survivors: Two Logics of Constitutional Protection, 3 U. CHI. L. SCH. ROuNDTABLE 121, 151 (1996).