Call for Papers
Norm Contestation and the Politics of Transitional Justice in East and Southeast Asia
Special Issue of the Journal of Contemporary East Asia Studies (JCEAS)
[An Open Access Journal]
https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/reas20
Transitional justice has become a central framework for reckoning with past atrocities. Yet the concept and practice of transitional justice – similar to many international norms – are always contested. Early scholarship focused on the diffusion or “cascade” of transitional justice norms, while subsequent work emphasized the importance of localization and local ownership. More recently, scholars of international norms have highlighted contestation as a key feature of norm diffusion, identifying how norms are reinterpreted, resisted, or reshaped. This framework has been applied to a wide range of issues, including human rights, trade, environment, humanitarianism, and sovereignty, but not systematically to transitional justice.
The Special Issue addresses this gap. We aim to explore how transitional justice norms are contested in East Asia, a region marked by uneven democratization, contested memories, and complex regional politics. Contestation may occur discursively or behaviorally and be directed at the application of transitional justice norms, their fundamental validity, or their interpretative understanding. Some countries in the region, such as South Korea, Timor-Leste, the Philippines, and Cambodia, have adopted transitional justice measures. However, in each of these cases, the transitional justice process has alternated between progress and reversal. Others, including Japan, North Korea, and Vietnam, remain “non-cases,” resisting or sidestepping transitional justice altogether. By situating East Asia within broader scholarly discussions about norm contestation, this Special Issue seeks to understand how dynamics of contestation shape the adoption, implementation, or rejection of transitional justice norms.
Rather than assuming linear progress or diffusion from the global to the local, we highlight how contestation, resistance, and adaptation reshape transitional justice itself across time and space. In doing so, we invite contributions that bridge the fields of transitional justice studies and international relations, while also drawing on empirical cases from across East Asia.
Potential lines of inquiry
Dynamics of Norm Contestation: Beyond diffusion, how are transitional justice norms being contested in East Asia? What concrete discursive or behavioral tactics have been used to express dissent against transitional justice? Are they being used to challenge the application, validity, or interpretation of the transitional justice norm? What insights do cases and non-cases provide about contestation and resistance?
Norm Localization: How are transitional justice norms being adapted and localized in East Asia? What strategies have local actors used to operationalize global ideas and best practices about transitional justice so that they are intelligible in their cultural context?
Temporal and Spatial Dynamics: How do transitional justice processes ebb and flow across time and space, sometimes alternating between support for transitional justice, on the one hand, and opposition or inertia, on the other? What explains these shifts in East Asian contexts?
Power and Agency: Who drives transitional justice processes in East Asia, and with what consequences? How do victims, civil society organizations, political leaders, bureaucrats, and international actors shape transitional justice outcomes or impose limits?
Regional and Global Contexts: How do transitional justice dynamics intersect with democratization, authoritarian resurgence, nationalism, and geopolitical pressures in East Asia? What role does regionalism play?
New Technologies and Transitional Justice: How do emerging technologies such as social media, YouTube, and generative artificial intelligence shape processes of norm contestation in transitional justice? Do these technologies amplify certain narratives, empower new actors, or intensify resistance and backlash?
Consequences of Norm Contestation: Does contestation enhance or hinder transitional justice processes? To what extent are the purported goals of transitional justice, such as human rights, democracy, peace, reconciliation, and the rule of law, achieved through contestation? What unintended consequences emerge from the East Asian context?
Theoretical and Methodological Reflections: How can norm contestation theory advance our understanding of transitional justice, and what new theoretical and methodological approaches are needed to capture the dynamics of dissent in East Asia?
Submission details
Abstract (max. 250 words): 15 October 2025
- Including three to six keywords and a short bio (max 150 words)
- Submit to: Hun Joon Kim (hunjoon7@korea.ac.kr)
Full paper (6,000 to 10,000 words): 1 July 2026
Guest Editors:
Hun Joon Kim is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Korea University. His research examines transitional justice and human rights in the Asia-Pacific, with a particular focus on how societies reckon with past atrocities through truth commissions. He is co-editor (with Renée Jeffery) of Transitional Justice in the Asia-Pacific (Cambridge University Press, 2013), author of The Massacres at Mt Halla: Sixty Years of Truth-Seeking in South Korea (Cornell University Press, 2014), and co-author (with Jason Sharman) of “Account and Accountability: Corruption, Human Rights, and the Individual Accountability Norm” (International Organization, 2014). He has published widely in leading journals, including International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research, Human Rights Quarterly, International Journal of Transitional Justice, and International Relations of the Asia Pacific. His recent work explores mass killings and transitional justice in Korea, especially the political contestation surrounding truth commissions.
Adam Kochanski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph in Canada. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Ottawa, with a specialization in International Relations. His work has been published in leading journals, including Review of International Studies, International Studies Review, Global Studies Quarterly, International Journal of Transitional Justice, Human Rights Review, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, and Peacebuilding. This includes a co-edited special issue of Peacebuilding on the role of non-state actors in peace and justice provision (with Joanna R. Quinn) and a co-edited special forum of Global Studies Quarterly on localization in world politics (with Emily K. M. Scott and Jennifer Welsh). His current research focuses on norm localization, examining how local actors adapt and translate global norms into local practice to support civilian self-protection in South Thailand and transitional justice efforts in Cambodia.
For more information on the submission process:
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=reas20