Acknowledgements
Umberto Eco once remarked, with his usual wit, that ideas have something in common with jokes: the more they are told, the better they get. This book has been long in the making, and I have had the good fortune to share my ideas with several kind people generously helping me to think through them along the way.
This book is in many ways a long conversation with my dear friend and long-time colleague Thomas Unger. Our conversation about transitional justice started in Geneva about ten years ago and has continued uninterrupted ever since. If I had to think of a place to describe the spirit of this conversation, it surely would be a Viennese coffeehouse (perhaps Thomas’s favourite Café Prückel or Café Engländer?). It would be one of those nostalgically outdated places where you can sit the whole day undisturbed on some worn-out plush chair, with a cup of (strangely named) coffee in front of you, surrounded by lots of newspapers and grim-looking smartly dressed waiters. One of those odd places, strangely out of touch with the commercial imperatives of the day, where it is never too late for another round of thoughts, where the conversation – about what was, what is and what may be – must go on, no matter what. Having this conversation meant and means a lot to me.
I started scribbling more than fifteen years ago, although very little of my early chapters made it into this book. Throughout all these years, Regula Ludi patiently read and thoughtfully commented on whatever I produced, offering insight into and support at every turn. Regula was incredibly generous with her time and energy and, just as important, helped me to keep my confidence at critical junctures. Since we met more than twenty years ago, Regula has been a close friend, intellectual companion and constant interlocutor, whose ways of thinking about history and the politics of the past have been an inspiration for my own work.
One of the great pleasures of teaching is to continue the conversation with former students. It is a real pleasure to see how many students who attended the Geneva Academy Master of Advanced Studies in Transitional Justice, which Thomas and I have co-directed for many years, have now become actively involved in one way or another in thinking about or practising transitional justice. Throughout the years, I have greatly benefitted from the critical discussions with many students and former students from all over the world. I am especially grateful to Tafadzwa Christmas, with whom I have closely worked for several years, and whose thoughtful inputs inside and outside the classroom have left more marks on this book than he might expect. I am also grateful to Abdallah AbdelWahab, another former student, who generously commented on parts of the manuscript and with whom I have had enriching conversations about these issues. I am grateful too to Mary de la Libertad Díaz Márquez for sharing her views on and lived experiences with Colombia’s transition over many coffees in the usual café in Lausanne.
The SNSF provided financial support and enabled me to carry out research for this project in New York, The Hague, Pretoria and Geneva. The year spent in 2005–2006 at the New York University School of Law proved, with hindsight, critical in shaping my views on transitional justice and in directing me towards the topic of value pluralism. I am especially grateful to Philip Alston, Director and Chair of the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice, who warmly welcomed me, offered generous support and encouraged me to pursue an interdisciplinary approach to law and transitional justice. I am further indebted to the foundation Stiefel-Zangger, whose generous grant enabled me to carry out research at the University of Berne in 2007–2009. Moreover, thanks to a generous SNSF professorship grant, I was able to pursue my research on transitional justice at the Geneva Academy for International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from 2011 to 2016.
I am deeply beholden for friendship and support to Fionnuala Ní Aoláin who, at a critical juncture of this project, offered crucial advice. Fionnuala kindly connected me with Finola O’Sullivan from Cambridge University Press, which turned out to be a turning point in this project. Finola’s incredible experience in academic publishing, her spot-on comments and calm and confident guidance through the review process have helped me keep going. I am greatly indebted to two anonymous reviewers who believed in the project and helped me make my argument stronger and more focussed. I am especially grateful to ‘reviewer 2’, whose critical yet constructive and encouraging comments greatly helped me to think through my argument. My special thanks go also to Marianne Nield for her expert guidance and kind support throughout the publication process as well as to other members of the team at Cambridge University Press, including Rachel Imrie and Joshua Penney. A special thank you also to Michelle Tilling for the painstaking copy-editing work.
I am also grateful to colleagues who have generously responded to my questions or with whom I have had conversations about issues in this book: Christine Bell, Josh Bowsher, Fabian Freyenhagen, Pádraig McAuliffe, Vasuki Nesiah and Marcos Zunino.
Last but by no means least, I warmly thank Karsten Behn and Jean d’Aspremont for the ongoing conversation since our NYC days and the continuing interest in what may have seemed a never-ending project. A warm thank you also to Stefano Biancu for the caring support throughout all these years and for kindly inviting me to present parts of my research at conferences in Trento and Rome. I like to thank warmly also my former tutor at LSE and friend David Bradley, who since the early days of this project has been an encouraging and inspiring companion during the journey, reminding me that the best is often the enemy of the good.
My family has lived with this book project for many years. Through it all, my wife, Graziella, has been her usual self – joy of living and rock in a stormy sea – lending her ear, heart and mind to my trials and tribulations. My daughter Chiara and her brothers Lorenzo and Matteo have patiently put up with their dad’s obsession with foxes and other odd fellows and have preserved my sanity by forcing me to engage with down-to-earth matters. My brother Alex and my sister Giulia, together with their partners Maria and Martin, have been caring fellow travellers along the way, giving me confidence and strength. My parents-in-law Rosa and Franco have just been ‘there’, a reassuring presence through all those years. My treasured parents, Monica and Jörg, were the good fortune that came to me earliest, and whose deep convictions have been life-guiding for me. To you all, a heartfelt thank you, grazie di cuore!
This book is dedicated to Chiara, who was born when it all started, and to Graziella who has been there through it all.
