Editor-in-Chief
Silvio Scanagatta
Barbara Segatto



Executive Committee
Ursula Apitzsch, Jean-Louis Derouet, Luisa Ribolzi, Alison Taysum, Carlos Alberto Torres, Catherine Yan Wang



International Scientific Board


Management Staff
Managing editor
Anna Dal Ben

 

For Italian Law
Iscrizione n.2165 - 13.02.2009 - Registro Stampa Tribunale di Padova

Direttore Responsabile: Giulia Golo

Trial Narratives and Truth. From a Political Tragedy to a Farcical Verdict. The Podlech Case

TitleTrial Narratives and Truth. From a Political Tragedy to a Farcical Verdict. The Podlech Case
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2019
AuthorsPunzi C, Vignola M
Secondary TitleItalian Journal of Sociology of Education
Volume11
Issue2
Pagination278-302
Date Published07/2019
PublisherPadova University Press
Place PublishedPadova, IT
ISSN Number 2035-4983
Keywordshuman rights, memory, political tragedies, transitional justice, trial narratives
Abstract

How can it be possible that the law stays powerless after political violence? How can it be possible that a nation looks at the future without sealing the wounds of victims and coming to terms with its past? However, the expression transitional justice is often only a euphemism; when dealing with crimes that involve whole communities, the law experiences great difficulty, if not inability, to face and explain the immensely complex issue of justice. Furthermore, the judicial process of the past shows its various limitations, due to the tragic nature of such political crimes. In this contribution through an ethnographic observation of the trial procedures, is analyzed the role of mnemonic narrations in the reconstruction of truth in a specific criminal trial highlighting the divide of the judicial reality, the epistemological dichotomy between the victim’s and the executioner’s narrations and, finally, the gap between historical and judicial truth, represented by the operative part of the judgment.

URLhttp://ijse.padovauniversitypress.it/2019/2/13
DOI10.14658/pupj-ijse-2019-2-13