In Iraq, the concept of “transitional justice” was always defined as a tool to settle pre-2003 scores. The Iraqi government’s decision to terminate the Criminal Court, which specialized in trying members of the former regime, may have been an indication that this transitional justice phase had run its course, and of a shift towards a “state of law.” In fact, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made the latter term the title of his electoral bloc so as to indicate this shift.
But the reality on the ground differs, not only in regards to the purging of former regime members, but in regards to the need for transitional justice in order to counteract the legacy of violence and political, social and institutional turmoil that followed in the regime’s wake.
