How justice relates to conflict resolution and peace has become intensively debated by both scholars and practitioners.

Is there a conflict or tension between justice and peace and, if so, when? Which of the two values should be prioritized, if and when both cannot be pursued or achieved? Although commonly phrased the “peace vs.

Traditionally, conflict managers have sought “pragmatically” to end violence and achieve peace. In this, there has been little concern about norms such as justice, although once peace is established it may well bring justice as well. Another set of approaches have regarded justice as a basic human need and injustice as a common root cause of conflict, that must be addressed if peace is to result and endure (e.g. Burton, 1990). Here the peace vs. justice dichotomy is rejected as false and misleading, for the two values go hand in hand (Lederach, 1995; see also Galtung, 1969). The international community is at times portrayed as too narrowly focused on containing conflict in and stabilizing particular trouble areas, without working to reduce global inequities on which peace ultimately depends (Tschirgi, 2005).

The reality of war, high-profile justice issues and the pressing need for policy guidance have brought the debate into the international limelight. How justice relates to peace and conflict resolution, what these values mean and which is to be prioritized have been or remain controversial policy issues in conflicts around the world - among them Rwanda, South Africa, Israel- Palestine, Cambodia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Northern Ireland. The many societies emerging from civil war and repressive rule have underscored that, in the task to build peace in the shadow of past gross human rights violations, moral principles stand side by side with political imperatives and strategic concerns. The recent literature on “transitional justice” often portrays this as a dilemma requiring difficult trade-offs between ethical standards and political strategy. For example, punishing severe justice violations may alienate actors who are also needed in building peace. Yet peace without justice may fail to gain public support and legitimacy and thus fall apart (e.g. Biggar, 2003). While taking on the peace vs. justice question with new intensity, research on post-conflict societies presents different conclusions on how the two values relate to each other and are to be balanced even when drawing on the same conflict cases. Crucial as the question is in that context, it is only one of several in which it arises.