International Courts and Mass Atrocity: Narratives of War and Justice in Croatia (Memory Politics and Transitional Justice)

The extra-legal effects of international and domestic war crimes trials continue to puzzle researchers and practitioners. In the former Yugoslav states, the legacy of conflict and issues of transitional justice remains central in politics, society and culture. This book provides a new theoretical and methodological approach to one of these puzzles: why universal human rights norms become distorted or undermined when they reach local publics. It investigates the social and cultural contexts that transitional justice processes take place in by looking at how emotional everyday narratives can hamper the spread of norms in society. In Croatia, these narratives define how the public understands the rule of law, history and minority rights. Ivor Sokolic is Research Officer in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. 1. Introduction 2. Transitional Justice as a Means of Deliberating the Past 3. The Narrative of the Homeland War in Croatia 4. Understandings of Law in Croatia 5. Serbs in the Eyes of Croats 6. War Veterans in Croatia 8. Bosnia in the Croatian War Narrative: A Missed Expressivist Opportunity? 9. Conclusion