This entry by Leah Niederhausen explores restitution as a dual concept that is both past-oriented and restorative, as well as future-oriented and transformative. It connects restitution to restorative and transformative paradigms of transitional justice–the movement that studies the long-term effects of past injustices and the instruments addressing them. Connecting the duality of restitution to transitional justice paradigms helps to better understand restitution as a complex concept that is not only defined by injustices in the past but by socio-political structures in the present.

The entry begins with studying how restorative and transformative notions are entangled in restitution contexts of both the Second World War and colonialism. Restitution as restoration here means the attempt to reconstruct pre-loot realities; restitution as transformation means a focus on the enduring legacies of mass violence today and the establishment of new relations. Then, the entry connects these perceptions of restitution with restorative and transformative paradigms in transitional justice. Finally, the entry reflects on how a transitional justice perspective on restitution can help to enhance understandings of the everchanging meanings of the past in the present.

Read the full chapter here, as well as the full Encyclopedia here.