Mirroring Truths: How Liberal Democracies Are Challenging Their Foundational Narratives

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is an excellent scholarly analysis of three limitations of the current liberal model of transitional justice with respect to historical injustices in both the global north and south, with special reference to historical colonial injustices in Canada, and the way in which the transitional justice model is only beginning to address the three limitations.

The overall model of transitional justice and the 3 historical injustices that this model so fails to address directly are set out and referenced with crystal clarity.

The empirical examples in the global north and south are canvassed very well and in great specificity with respect to Canada first and the USA in second. 

This chapter will be of considerable interest and help to scholars working within the transitional justice framework. The chapter provides them with ways to more forward on the 3 injustices. It will also be of considerable interest to scholars working outside the transitional justice and on the three colonial injustices under different theoretical frameworks. It may even initiate a conversation between these two distinct type of scholars. This would be another important contribution to the field. 

Author Response

I believe there is not any main issue raised by this reviewer. The comments are all positive.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

Thank you very much for this article. It was very interesting reading about your topic.

This article, according to my view, is too descriptive. It doesn’t exist empirical work. The abstract should be more clearly stated the principal aims, novelties and/or contributions, main few findings, and study implications, even you have some specification in the Introduction part (lines 18-63).

Also, Conclusions should be improved as they are not clearly stressed, be more clear in the study limitations and what are the proposals for research in future?

Good luck!

 

 

Author Response

Reviewer 2 argues the article is too descriptive and lacks empirical work.

While the comments is too broad and lacks clear instruction on what to improve, the authors are working on explaining better the methodology in order to better sustain the empirical work that has been done.

These improvements will incorporate a review of the conclusions once the body of the text has been re-examined. 

Reviewer 3 Report

First, the article is of a very broad nature and thus the organization of the text is chaotic. The authors should reflect the construction of an academic paper, first formulating the research problem, then establishing the methodological approach and focus on scientific analysis. As such, this paper contains many arguments but they are in a mixed and chaotic way. Similarly, there are too many different geographical examples used which also adds to the complexity of the study.

I suggest using journal´s instructions for references, citing and text structure, since there is no conclusion.

Author Response

The reviewer expresses the need to "formulating the research problem, then establishing the methodological approach and focus on scientific analysis. As such, this paper contains many arguments but they are in a mixed and chaotic way. Similarly, there are too many different geographical examples used which also adds to the complexity of the study."

We have now incorporated a paragraph where we present the methodological approach. Here: "Methodologically, this is a conceptual article that tries to make some critical points about how we understand the applicability of a transitional justice framework to the way liberal democracies are dealing with a history of colonial crimes. In doing so, we examine a variety of scholarly sources to highlight some major conceptual issues and use examples from a number of countries where relevant. The article’s main objective is to explore the extent to which transitional justice can be applied to liberal democracies with a legacy of colonial crimes. Particularly, we focus on former settler states or colonial empires by critically examining potential obstacles that would stand in the way of their dealing with a legacy of oppression and violations of human rights".

We have also given some order to the ideas presented by clarifying some parts and by incorporating titles that explain better the contents.

Moreover, some of the examples presented which appeared in various places, such as the case of Spain, now appears more developed and structured in a single place.

"Spain’s democratic transition after the Franco dictatorship and a divisive civil war is a particularly illuminating case. Far from being a discussion of the past, the Spanish transition continues to be politicized and approached very differently by the right and the left. While the socialist party (PSOE) enacted the Historic Memory Act in 2007, during their time in government, from 2012 to 2018, the conservative party (Partido Popular) did not fund the mechanisms created to exhume the bodies of victims who were forcefully disappeared. More recently, in October 2022, the Spanish Parliament, now with a socialist majority, passed the Democratic Memory Act to expand the processes and mechanisms for Spain to deal with a past of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law."

 

Reviewer 4 Report

The object of study is original, it is well planned and it can be of great help in the democratic development of societies, so the research is very relevant.

However, there is an important deficiency that should be corrected prior to publication. There is no methodological framework in which it is explained how the research has been carried out, nor do objectives and hypotheses appear, so the final conclusions are a bit poor and blurred. It is important to include this section and relate it both to the development of the article and to the final conclusions.

It is unknown if the cases reviewed are all those that are or only an exploratory study and emphasis is placed on the Spanish case, but many others with the same characteristics could be reviewed in which, although it would not be necessary to go into detail, they would at least be reviewed.

On the other hand, all the epigraphs appear headed by the number 1, which is an insignificant error and easily correctable.

Author Response

The reviewer points out a that "there is no methodological framework in which it is explained how the research has been carried out, nor do objectives and hypotheses appear, so the final conclusions are a bit poor and blurred".

This is not an "empirical piece than involves data collection and testing hypotheses". It is rather a conceptual article that tries to makes some critical points about how we understand an important contemporary scholarly issue.

To deal with the issues raised, we have incorporated now the following paragraph in the introduction: 

Methodologically, this is a conceptual article that tries to make some critical points about how we understand the applicability of a transitional justice framework to the way liberal democracies are dealing with a history of colonial crimes. In doing so, we examine a variety of scholarly sources to highlight some major conceptual issues and use examples from a number of countries where relevant. The article’s main objective is to explore the extent to which transitional justice can be applied to liberal democracies with a legacy of colonial crimes. Particularly, we focus on former settler states or colonial empires by critically examining potential obstacles that would stand in the way of their dealing with a legacy of oppression and violations of human rights.