Transitional Justice in Egypt and Post-revolution Trials

Author

Hussein Ahmed AllamFollow

Abstract

The crises-centered paradigm and the concept of the exception shape the discourses of international law and transitional justice. However, the latter has evolved to have normal manifestations. The Egyptian 2011 Revolution was followed by a transitional/exceptional state, which witnessed the trials of the members of the ancien régime, mainly the heads - the former president Mubarak and his interior minister amongst others - through the mechanisms of normal criminal justice. Because of this, the associated trials were committed to strict legality and procedural justice and addressed only individual criminal responsibility. Due to the absence of an explicit roadmap for the transition, as well as the confusing rule of law because of the parallelism of the exception and normalcy, trials fell short of meeting the revolutionary claims and the requirements of the transition. Firstly, they did not address the past injustices as they passed on the political and institutional liability for the past systematic human rights abuses and regularized financial and political corruption. Additionally, they did not meet the victims’ needs. Further, they produced problematic juridical truths: the commitment to the revolutionary demands versus criminalizing the revolution itself. On the contrary, the elusiveness of the concept of transitional justice ramifies the treatment thereof into various approaches. The discourse of transitional justice should have been adopted in Egypt by dint of establishing ad hoc tribunals and calibrating specific norms that respond to past injustices.

School

School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

Department

Law Department

Degree Name

LLM in International and Comparative Law

Graduation Date

Spring 6-2023

Submission Date

5-20-2023

First Advisor

Thomas Skouteris

Committee Member 1

Thomas Skouteris

Committee Member 2

Jason Beckett

Committee Member 3

Amr Shalakany

Extent

72 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Not necessary for this item

Recommended Citation

APA Citation

Ahmed Allam, H. (2023).Transitional Justice in Egypt and Post-revolution Trials [Master's Thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain.
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2100

MLA Citation

Ahmed Allam, Hussein. Transitional Justice in Egypt and Post-revolution Trials. 2023. American University in Cairo, Master's Thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain.
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2100