TJ Standardisation by Manual: Technologies of the Toolkit

Transitional justice (TJ) is a field of practice and scholarship that has produced a wealth of guidelines, toolbooks, manuals and generic policies. They articulate the international best practice as it has evolved over time. To what extent does this ‘best practice’ converge on the same aims, assumptions, institutions and processes? How do they - implicitly or explicitly - conceptualise and understand justice, law, politics, the state, victims/survivors, and state-society relations? This paper provides a thick analysis of the TJ tool box and theorises the TJ standard as it has emerged in the guiding material. It presents the results of a systematic and interpretive content analysis of TJ manuals, guidelines, and tool books.