This detailed evaluation of the relationship between trials and truth commissions challenges their assumed compatibility through an analysis of their operational features at national, inter-state and international levels. Alison Bisset conducts case-study analyses of national practice in South Africa, East Timor and Sierra Leone, evaluates the problems posed by the International Criminal Court and considers the challenges presented by the possibility of bystander state prosecutions. At each level, she highlights potential operational conflicts and formulates targeted proposals to enable effective coexistence.

'… this is a highly readable, carefully and clearly worked text that achieves the rare virtue of holding many key legal developments in view simultaneously and expounding them with admirable clarity. Legal scholars and students, as well as other- or inter-disciplinary specialists with an interest in transitional justice, will find much of empirical and conceptual interest here, and it would be a useful addition to personal libraries as well as reading lists for any graduate level course in conflict studies, international criminal law, international relations or transitional justice … this book is a thought-provoking and stimulating contribution to the field.' Cath Collins, The Irish Jurist
'Alison Bisset's monograph provides a well-crafted analysis of the relationship between two dominant bodies present within a diverse blueprint of transitional justice, namely, prosecutions through courts, operating alongside proceedings before truth commissions. … This is a well-written and optimistic account, with a firm grasp of procedural detail posing necessary questions within a pluralistic vision of the transitional justice ideal. It speaks more keenly to a policymaker and practitioner audience, but would also be of interest to those graduate students studying international criminal justice or transitional justice, more widely.' Birju Kotecha, Journal of International Criminal Justice

Alison Bisset is a lecturer in law at the University of Reading.