De (dia)logics van erkenning en herstel. Het belang van geschiedenis voor rechtvaardigheid

Why is it necessary to talk about the past when it comes to justice? What characterizes recognition of historical injustice? And what is recognition anyway? In her inaugural lecture Nicole Immler examines the social dimensions of recognition and repair from structural violence: When do people feel seen, heard and recognized? In doing so, she focuses on the potential that recognition instruments have to bring about so-called transformative justice. Transformative justice shifts the focus from the legal to the social, to the meaning and impact of legal processes on the lives of those involved, whereby agency, relationship building and above all participation are key words. Transformative justice also balances a backward-looking liability and a forward-looking responsibility approach, by saying: Without knowledge of the past, meaningful repair – addressing the root causes of injustice – is impossible. Using the example ‘Dutch slavery past’, this article first discusses how limited our imagination is about what recognition means, and how it could be expanded. Subsequently, by making use of some other cases of historical injustice from the research project ‘Dialogics of Justice’, she advocates for broadening the conversation on recognition and repair by questioning the underlying structures that make us think recognition too often too narrowly.