Contribution or stumbling stone? Justice and reconciliation revisited.

In this article, Peter Lambertz provides an overview over the different conceptualizations of reconciliation in social psychology, political science, history, law and sociology, dividing them into the putative impact, reconciliation is expected to have on legal, social and memory space. He argues that these concepts refer to psychological and social objectives like the acknowledgement of victims, avoidance of vengeance and the individualization of guilt as well as to political and legal aims like the individualization of guilt, the abolition of impunity and strengthening of democracy. The article constitutes the theoretical basis for a subsequent, empirical article, in which Peter Lambertz applies these concepts in order to assess the meaning of reconciliation as used in the speeches and verdicts of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.