The Legal Heritage of the Atom 141
The term transitional justice refers, on the one hand, to a political arena that
seeks to deal with human rights violations and war crimes committed by
former repressive regimes. On the other hand, it also indicates an expanding field of research that has developed since the mid-1990s and investigates
precisely these practices. The collapse of the Soviet Union – in addition to
further transition processes in Latin America and South Africa – has given
decisive impulses for the development of transitional justice as a field of action
and research. However, the origins of the concept can be traced back, according to some experts, far earlier, in the period after 1945, symbolized by the
Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials. Nuremberg remains the central
model for all subsequent debates to this day. 6 According to some historians, it
was precisely at this time that the emergence of a clearly contoured concept
of human rights in the political arena was to be located, even though older
lines of tradition in the history of ideas certainly date back well into the
eighteenth century. 7
With regard to Eastern Europe, the general question here is of course
whether these genealogies apply at all to the countries behind the “iron curtain.” According to many political scientists, coming to terms with the dictatorial past is a key element in building a stable democracy. 8 In this context,
rehabilitation and reparation programs are of particular importance for the
victims. “Reparation” is to be understood as the interplay of discourses and
practices that change the meaning and evaluation of historical injustice and
create certain claims among the victims. According to the Swiss historian
Regula Ludi, the significance of the category of “victim” in remembering
the Holocaust has only become possible because “being a victim” changed
from a stigma to a respectable status through the politics and practice of reparation until the early 1960s. 9
The perspectives of transitional justice research provide an initial framework to bring together questions of the historical treatment of victims and
perpetrators for the Soviet context. At the same time, however, the postSoviet development also shows the limitations of the concept. Transitional
justice represents to some degree a Western concept, the transferability of
which to other regions of the world should and must be questioned. 10
Environmental justice emerged as a political arena in the USA in the early
1980s, focusing on the fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. At the same time, it describes a rapidly developing field of research that
deals with issues at the interface of environmental, social, and health policy. 11
Christopher Williams defines environmental victims as “those of past, present, or future generations who are injured as a consequence of change to the
chemical, physical, microbiological, or psychosocial environment, brought
about by deliberate or reckless, individual or collective, human act or act of
omission.” 12 Adriana Petryna, in her pioneering study on state compensation
for Chernobyl victims in post-Soviet Ukraine, coined the term “biological
citizenship,” which describes the ways Chernobyl victims in Ukraine enforced
their compensation claims. Petryna has also shown that the recognition of
The term transitional justice refers, on the one hand, to a political arena that
seeks to deal with human rights violations and war crimes committed by
former repressive regimes. On the other hand, it also indicates an expanding field of research that has developed since the mid-1990s and investigates
precisely these practices. The collapse of the Soviet Union – in addition to
further transition processes in Latin America and South Africa – has given
decisive impulses for the development of transitional justice as a field of action
and research. However, the origins of the concept can be traced back, according to some experts, far earlier, in the period after 1945, symbolized by the
Nuremberg and Tokyo war crimes trials. Nuremberg remains the central
model for all subsequent debates to this day. 6 According to some historians, it
was precisely at this time that the emergence of a clearly contoured concept
of human rights in the political arena was to be located, even though older
lines of tradition in the history of ideas certainly date back well into the
eighteenth century. 7
With regard to Eastern Europe, the general question here is of course
whether these genealogies apply at all to the countries behind the “iron curtain.” According to many political scientists, coming to terms with the dictatorial past is a key element in building a stable democracy. 8 In this context,
rehabilitation and reparation programs are of particular importance for the
victims. “Reparation” is to be understood as the interplay of discourses and
practices that change the meaning and evaluation of historical injustice and
create certain claims among the victims. According to the Swiss historian
Regula Ludi, the significance of the category of “victim” in remembering
the Holocaust has only become possible because “being a victim” changed
from a stigma to a respectable status through the politics and practice of reparation until the early 1960s. 9
The perspectives of transitional justice research provide an initial framework to bring together questions of the historical treatment of victims and
perpetrators for the Soviet context. At the same time, however, the postSoviet development also shows the limitations of the concept. Transitional
justice represents to some degree a Western concept, the transferability of
which to other regions of the world should and must be questioned. 10
Environmental justice emerged as a political arena in the USA in the early
1980s, focusing on the fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. At the same time, it describes a rapidly developing field of research that
deals with issues at the interface of environmental, social, and health policy. 11
Christopher Williams defines environmental victims as “those of past, present, or future generations who are injured as a consequence of change to the
chemical, physical, microbiological, or psychosocial environment, brought
about by deliberate or reckless, individual or collective, human act or act of
omission.” 12 Adriana Petryna, in her pioneering study on state compensation
for Chernobyl victims in post-Soviet Ukraine, coined the term “biological
citizenship,” which describes the ways Chernobyl victims in Ukraine enforced
their compensation claims. Petryna has also shown that the recognition of