Doctoral Dissertation Research: Seeking Redress and Producing Justice in Diverse Forums

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

When new legal systems subordinate customary law to universalizing constitutional authority during democratic transitions, justice seeking nevertheless persists outside the criminal justice system. Those seeking redress for wrongdoing often pursue remedies in non-court forums, with victims appealing, for example, to chiefs, neighborhood groups, and family. These non-court avenues for resolving disputes do not simply offer multiple routes to remedy; they also may offer alternative modes of constructing wrongdoing and producing justice. This research project studies how remedies are sought and justice is produced in and between different forums of redress, examining the ways practices of justice shape indeterminate grievances into recognized categories of transgression. The study asks three sets of questions: 1) How do victims of wrongdoing seek remedy? 2) What is the relationship between different forums of redress? 3) How is wrongdoing constituted as transgression through forums of redress? This project promises to shed light on how people seek redress in various ways and contexts, and how interpersonal harm comes to be classified in different ways. Claims to justice serve as the very foundation of citizenship. For example, Title IX complaints in American universities, military tribunals judging cases of officer misconduct, and vigilantism on behalf of family, friends, and neighbors offer different modes of arbitrating and adjudicating complaints outside criminal law and differing ideas about the relationship between citizens and states. Thus the broader stakes of this project concern experiences of wrongdoing and political exclusion, especially among populations whose first recourse is not necessarily the criminal justice system. To examine efforts to remedy wrongdoing, this project focuses on sexual violence and undertakes a case study of justice-seeking practices in the context of unwanted sex. Sonia Rupcic, a PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department at the University of Michigan, will conduct a 12-month investigation in South Africa, employing a range of anthropological methods, including interviews with those involved in seeking and offering redress for wrongdoing, and observation in formal and informal forums of dispute resolution (e.g., courtrooms, chief tribunals, and neighborhood watch meetings). The research will follow the justice-seeking practices of victims and their families through diverse sites of redress and track the parallel movement of indeterminate grievances as they coalesce into distinct categories of wrongs.