Post-conflict traditional justice: a critical overview

The authors examine the debates surrounding recent attempts to introduce local accountability mechanisms into structures of transitional justice in politically fragile and post-conflict situations. Issues discussed include the relevance of state capture, whether traditional justice is restorative, the discriminatory aspects of traditional justice and whether it is fully understood by outsiders. Tim Allen is Professor of Development Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Anna Macdonald is a doctoral candidate in the Department of War Studies at King's College London.