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  Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice

  Lavinia Sta Ed., Nadya Nedelsky Ed., and Brett J. Kyle

  The Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice remains the premier reference tool that presents the state of the art in the field of reckoning with the legacy of past gross human rights abuses. Almost 200 scholars and practitioners from all continents summarize country efforts to address and redress the recent past, and present key transitional justice methods, debates, institutions and concepts. Both state and non-state initiatives are concisely overviewed. Written in an accessible style but with an eye to detail and accuracy, the entries include the latest research in the field and provide suggestions for further readings. Widely consulted by academics, practitioners, government officials and civil society representatives, the Encyclopedia is unmatched in the number of countries, institutions, debates, as well as methods, programs and practices it covers.

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  Artistic Representations of Suffering: Rights, Resistance, and Remembrance

  Mark Celinscak and Curtis Hutt

  Artistic expression frequently engages with the question of suffering. In so doing, it confronts the gravity and complexity of the human condition. This volume investigates the relationship between art and suffering. In short, the contributors to this volume collectively demonstrate that suffering is an undisputed and shareable motivating experience.

  This collection features original essays that focus on the subject of art and suffering, including topics such as the representation of violence and the intersections of art and human rights. Some of the key questions explored are as follows:

  • How has suffering motivated artists around the world?
  • How have artists used their platforms to call attention to human rights abuses?
  • How can suffering be incorporated responsibly and ethically in works of art?
  • What role does art play in the struggle against violations of human dignity and the promotion of building a more equitable world?

  Each essay is complemented by full-color reproductions of artistic works that illustrate the concepts being discussed, including a graphic essay on the topic of “comfort women.”

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  Military Courts, Civil-Military Relations, and the Legal Battle for Democracy: The Politics of Military Justice

  Brett J. Kyle and Andrew G. Rieter

  The interaction between military and civilian courts, the political power that legal prerogatives can provide to the armed forces, and the difficult process civilian politicians face in reforming military justice remain glaringly under-examined, despite their implications for the quality and survival of democracy. This book breaks new ground by providing a theoretically rich, global examination of the operation and reform of military courts in democratic countries. Drawing on a newly created dataset of 120 countries over more than two centuries, it presents the first comprehensive picture of the evolution of military justice across states and over time. Combined with qualitative historical case studies of Colombia, Portugal, Indonesia, Fiji, Brazil, Pakistan, and the United States, the book presents a new framework for understanding how civilian actors are able to gain or lose legal control of the armed forces. The book’s findings have important lessons for scholars and policymakers working in the fields of democracy, civil-military relations, human rights, and the rule of law.

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  The Dynamics of Regional Migration Governance

  Andrew Geddes, Marcia Vera Espinoza, Leila Hadj Abdou, and Leiza Brumat

  Chatper 3: Migration governance in South America: regional approaches versus national laws authored by Victoria Finn, Cristián Doña-Reveco (University of Nebraska Omaha), and Marya Feddersen.

  This book analyses the dynamics of regional migration governance and accounts for why, how and with what effects states cooperate with each other in diverse forms of regional grouping on aspects of international migration, displacement and mobility. The book develops a framework for analysis of comparative regional migration governance to support a distinct and truly global approach accounting for developments in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America and the many and varying forms that regional arrangements can take in these regions.

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  The Sorrows of Mattidia: A New Translation and Commentary

  Curtis Hutt

  This volume offers a new translation of the Pseudo-Clementine family narrative here known as The Sorrows of Mattidia. It contains a full introduction which explores the obscured origins of the text, the plot, and main characters, and engages in a comparison of the portrayal of pagan, Jewish, and Christian women in this text with what we encounter in other literature. It also discusses a general strategy for how historians can utilize fictional narratives like this when examining the lives of women in the ancient world. This translation makes this fascinating source for late antique women available in this form for the first time.

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  Jewish Religious and Philosophical Ethics

  Curtis Hutt, Halla Kim, and Berel Dov Lerner

  Twentieth century continental thinkers such as Bergson, Levinas and Jonas have brought fresh and renewed attentions to Jewish ethics, yet it still remains fairly low profile in the Anglophone academic world.

  This collection of critical essays brings together the work of established and up-and-coming scholars from Israel, the United States, and around the world on the topic of Jewish religious and philosophical ethics. The chapters are broken into three main sections – Rabbinics, Philosophy, and Contemporary Challenges. The authors address, using a variety of research strategies, the work of both major and lesser-known figures in historical Jewish religious and philosophical traditions. The book discusses a wide variety of topics related to Jewish ethics, including "ethics and the Mishnah," "Afro Jewish ethics," "Jewish historiographical ethics," as well as the conceptual/philosophical foundations of the law and virtues in the work of Martin Buber, Hermann Cohen, and Baruch Spinoza.The volume closes with four contributions on present-day frontiers in Jewish ethics.

  As the first book to focus on the nature, scope and ramifications of the Jewish ethics at work in religious and philosophical contexts, this book will be of great interest to anyone studying Jewish Studies, Philosophy and Religion.

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  The Meaning of My Neighbor's Faith: Interreligious Reflections on Immigration

  Alexander Y. Hwang and Laura E. Alexander

  Chapter 15: The Global Refugee Crisis and Religious Ethics: Questions to Ask authored by Laura E. Alexander of the University of Nebraska at Omaha

  The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith addresses two of the most critical challenges of our time: immigration and religious diversity. The diverse group of contributors, representing a variety of religious traditions, disciplines, and methodologies, explore “the meaning of my neighbor’s faith” in the age of migration. Each author reflects on the meaning of religious traditions in the context of the unprecedented migrations of people who look and believe differently than their hosts. The volume is the work of scholars dedicated to advancing religious understanding of the debate and discussions on immigration in the light of religious diversity in America and other places in the world.

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  Recycling Dictators in Latin American Elections: Legacies of Military Rule

  Brett J. Kyle

  What explains the presence—and the surprising performance—of former authoritarian-regime officials in Latin American presidential elections? To answer that question, Brett J. Kyle examines the experiences of twelve countries that transitioned from military to civilian government in the Third Wave of democratization. His persuasive analysis, incorporating case studies of Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, and El Salvador, sheds new light on the consolidation of democracy in Latin America.

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  Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Nazi Concentration Camp

  Mark Celinscak

  Winner of the 2016 Vine Award for Nonfiction

  The Allied soldiers who liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen in April 1945 were faced with scenes of horror and privation. With breathtaking thoroughness, Distance from the Belsen Heap documents what they saw and how they came to terms with those images over the course of the next seventy years. On the basis of research in more than seventy archives in four countries, Mark Celinscak analyses how these military personnel struggled with the intense experience of the camp; how they attempted to describe what they had seen, heard, and felt to those back home; and how their lives were transformed by that experience. He also brings to light the previously unacknowledged presence of hundreds of Canadians among the camp’s liberators, including noted painter Alex Colville.

  Distance from the Belsen Heap examines the experiences of hundreds of British and Canadian eyewitnesses to atrocity, including war artists, photographers, medical personnel, and chaplains. A study of the complicated encounter between these Allied soldiers and the horrors of the Holocaust, Distance from the Belsen Heap is a testament to their experience.

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  John Dewey and the Ethics of Historical Belief: Religion and the Representation of the Past

  Curtis Hutt

  Uses the thought of John Dewey to address the ethics of historical belief within religious and critical historiographical traditions.
  
  John Dewey and the Ethics of Historical Belief addresses the ethics of the representation of the past with a focus on the justification of historical belief within religious and critical historiographical traditions. What makes a belief about the past justified? What makes one historical belief preferable to another? A great deal rides on how these questions are answered. History textbook wars take place across the globe, from California to India. Cultural heritage protection is politicized and historical research is commonly deployed in support of partisan agendas.
  
  This book explores not only John Dewey’s relatively unknown contribution to this topic, but also the leading alternatives to his approach. Author Curtis Hutt focuses attention on the debate among those most influenced by Dewey’s thought, including Richard Rorty, Richard Bernstein, James Kloppenberg, Wayne Proudfoot, and Jeffrey Stout. He also reviews the seminal work of Van Harvey on the relationship between historians and religious believers. Dewey is cast as a vigorous opponent of those who argue that justified historical belief depends upon one’s religious tradition. Strongly resisted is the idea that historical belief can be justified simply on account of acculturation. Instead, Dewey’s view that beliefs are justified as a result of theorized historical inquiry is emphasized. In order to prevent moral blindness, the responsible historian and theologian alike are advised to attend to witnesses to the past that arise from outside of their own traditions.

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  Civil Society, Conflict and Violence

  Wolfgang Dörner, Regina A. List, Mandeep S. Tiwana, and Brett J. Kyle

  Editors: Wolfgang Dörner and Regina A. List

  Chapter 6, The Law, Security and Civil Society Freedoms, co-authored by Brett Kyle, UNO faculty member.

  This book looks at the role that civil society organizations play in dealing with conflict and violence. The authors argue that in most of the prevalent conceptualizations the conflict dimension of civil society is either downplayed or inadequately addressed. They contend that the ability to deal with conflict is at the heart of organized civil society; in the political process, one of civil society's key functions is to express and mediate between different interests, thus contributing to political decision-making.

  The chapters draw on detailed, empirical data from the CIVICUS Civil Society Index - a unique comparative data-set drawn from 25 countries, which has not previously been made publicly available. It examines the different ways violence has been manifested in civil societies, the meaning of violent protest and the impact of security legislation that might hinder the mediating efforts of civil society. The book offers a sophisticated comparison between conflict and post-conflict countries and an analysis of the role of civil society in conflict resolution, reconciliation and transitional justice.