Overview

Throughout its history, the growing influence and significance of the United States on the world stage coincided with its legacy of human rights violations. However, with each momentous societal shift America encountered- its independence from Great Britain, the Civil War, two World Wars, and the fall of the Soviet communist bloc- Presidents have taken the opportunity to address the atrocities of America's past. Presidential Visions of Transitional Justice: An American Legacy of Responsibility and Reconciliation provides a wide-ranging look at how American Presidents not only influence foreign policy but leverage their power and influence to to address the challenges of political violence and transition globally. Professor Ruti G. Teitel uses examples throughout American history to demonstrate how executives have acted as visionaries in their approach to transitional justice from George Washington to Barack Obama. In exploring how Presidents advanced peace-making efforts in the past, this book shows how executives of the future might do the same. Professor Teitel is a leading authority on transitional justice, establishing it as a scholarly field of inquiry. At a time when America's global leadership is subject to significant critical challenge, this latest volume illuminates the importance of transitional justice in foreign policy.

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9780197797556

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Reviews

With Presidential Visions of Transitional Justice, Teitel has produced a fascinating and much-needed look at how American presidents have used (and declined to use) the power of their office at pivotal moments that cried out for efforts to bring about justice in a given society. * Annette Gordon-Reed, Carl M. Loeb University professor at Harvard University, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family * This unique and compelling book by Ruti Teitel, who pioneered the legal concept of transitional justice, tells the story of US presidents from Washington to Obama who confronted their nation's past wrongs with honesty and transparency-not so much to apologize but to set a new tone and forward direction in foreign relations. ""The law is also memory,"" as Obama put it, ""a nation arguing with its conscience. * Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, Political Science Department, Columbia University * Teitel establishes a historical foundation for an important expansion of foreign policy tools. She shows how presidential acknowledgment of and apology for past wrongdoing can be a sign of strength rather than weakness. Future American presidents who seek to face the past with honesty as a way to reset relations with historic adversaries can now invoke great patriotic figures like Washington, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Her book is a valuable contribution to international law and international relations. * Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America * Ruti Teitel demonstrates that the United States has as rich a history of grappling with transitional justice as Germany and South Africa. Presidential Visions of Transitional Justice lovingly details how presidents from the beginning of the republic have forgiven and not forgiven those who have challenged the American regime. Every student of American constitutional development should learn this story. * Mark A. Graber, Regents Professor, University of Maryland Carey School of Law *

Author Information

Ruti G. Teitel is the Ernst C. Stiefel Professor of Comparative Law at New York Law School, and a lecturer in the graduate program in international relations at New York University. She is the author of the now classic work, Transitional Justice, as well as of Humanity's Law and Globalizing Transitional Justice. Teitel is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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