It has become both a normative expectation as well as a practical policy recommendation that context-specific transitional justice measures are needed to repair the state and society following a conflict or an authoritarian transition. The assumption that transitional justice programs benefit both a state and its society is so strongly held that international actors will step in to design and even implement measures when a government is unable or unwilling to do so. In her acclaimed book Building Trust and Democracy: Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Countries, published with Oxford University Press in 2017, Prof. Cynthia Horne examines these claims with respect to transitional justice measures in post-communist states, exploring whether, how, and under what conditions transitional justice supported political and social trust-building, societal reconciliation, and democratization in twelve former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union over the period from 1989 to 2012. Recognized for her exceptional scholarship, Prof. Horne discusses in this interview not only the link between trust and transitional justice, but also her views on a field that has gained in relevance internationally during the past several decades.

Lavinia Stan is a professor of political science at St. Francis Xavier University in Canada.