In this book, James Gallen provides an in-depth evaluation of the responses of Western States and churches to their historical abuses from a transitional justice perspective. Using a comparative lens, this book examines the application of transitional justice to address and redress the past in Ireland, Australia, Canada, the United States and United Kingdom. It evaluates the use of public inquiries and truth commissions, litigation, reparations, apologies, and reconciliation in each context to address these abuses. Significantly, this novel analysis considers how power and public emotions influence, and often impede, transitional justice's ability to address historical-structural injustices. In addressing historical abuses, power fails to be redistributed and national and religious myths are not reconsidered, leading Gallen to conclude that the existing transitional justice efforts of states and churches remain an unrepentant form of justice. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

‘This compelling book offers a radical critique of transitional justice efforts in liberal democracies. Challenging readers to interrogate their investment in half-hearted redress, James Gallen emphasises that we cannot make amends for violent pasts without dismantling foundational elements of the liberal legal order. Transitional justice is the work of generations, and there can be no shortcuts.’

Máiréad Enright - University of Birmingham

‘Sweeping and broad-ranging in its scope, this is an ambitious, original treatise on the way forward for the political and legal redress of past abuses committed by Church and State. Gallen powerfully argues for a distinct justice response to these international historical abuses, one that transcends orthodox principles of transitional justice to challenge structural power relations. The book makes significant contributions to the ontological process of truth-telling for different groups of survivors in various jurisdictions, as well as to the study of transitional and transformative justice. It is essential reading for practitioners and scholars of historical and institutional abuses across the West.’

Kate Gleeson - Macquarie University

‘This book offers a wide-ranging, critical analysis of the historical abuses of church and state in western societies within a transitional justice framework. Well-written and highly accessible, it is a timely and very important contribution to the literature. This book will be a key text for decades to come.’

Anne-Marie McAlinden - Queen’s University Belfast