Associate Editor, ICONnect Blog; Doctoral (JSD) Candidate, NYU, USA
The ICONnect Blog is pleased to welcome this symposium on Ruti Teitel’s recent book, Presidential Visions of Transitional Justice: An American Legacy of Responsibility and Reconciliation (2025). In this new work by one of the pioneer scholars in transitional justice, Professor Teitel embarks on a journey to explore the role of U.S. Presidents in transitional moments both within the U.S. and abroad. A trip guided by the power of presidential speech that, as Professor Arnaud Kurze suggests in his contribution to this symposium, bears the power of “hegemonic self-accountability; one in which acknowledgment, apology, and restraint function not as admissions of weakness, but as sources of legitimacy”.
This story begins with the founding of the United States, where George Washington was instrumental in balancing interests to secure the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. This event laid the foundation for contemporary systems of international dispute resolution (Chapter 2). The journey continues through Abraham Lincoln’s strategic use of presidential power, setting the stage for the post-Civil War period, especially in the context of the anti-slavery shift (Chapter 3).
Each of these periods is marked by a combination of the expansion and use of presidential powers in foreign relations and the pardon power, enabling administrations to pursue a forward-looking balance between peace and justice. A narrative that grew more complex during the era of U.S. expansionism led by Theodore Roosevelt—whose intervention in Panama, back then part of Colombia, and the Philippines, Professor Teitel discusses—raises questions about the true limits of U.S. presidential power when a decisive attempt at gunboat diplomacy is undertaken (Chapter 4). In fact, Daniel Quiroga Villamarín points out in this symposium that Roosevelt’s legacy could hardly “be celebrated as an endeavor aimed at preventing future conflict—an outcome purportedly beneficial to all humanity.”
This legacy was later addressed by Woodrow Wilson in his call for a “peace without victory,” serving as the main argument against punitive sanctions on Germany in the early post-war period. Although his position did not prevail at that time, it was echoed by later administrations during the turbulent post-World War II era (Chapter 5). Professor Teitel emphasizes this legacy at the beginning and end of her book, particularly through Barack Obama’s so-called “apology tour” in his final year of the second term. This tour involved acknowledging varying degrees of U.S. involvement in human rights violations and war crimes in countries such as Vietnam, Japan, Laos, Argentina, and in efforts to restore relations with Cuba (Chapters 1 and 6).
Professor Teitel draws important reflections on the role of the chief executive in driving channels of political change through constitutional means—specifically through the broad set of constitutional tools granted to the U.S. president—but also highlights the remarkable capacity of political assertiveness to open avenues of institutional change. This serves as a means to facilitate transitions across various areas, from economic reconstruction to criminal accountability. Apology becomes a mechanism through which presidential power and the presidents themselves forge transitional settings aligned with the.
To be sure, recognizing the exercise of a self-driven presidential power as a form of apology is challenging not just in the US but also from a comparative perspective, as Elie Tassel-Maurizi suggests in this symposium. Even though Obama’s apology tour was certainly remarkable compared to the US’s historic resistance to reckoning with the past, as Tassel Maurizi states, “a more nuanced assessment of the memorial legacy of his presidency is warranted.”
Professor Teitel’s account also prompts us to further analyze the prerequisites for the kind of leadership she describes in her discussion of the U.S. presidential legacy. As Professor Maria Varaki highlights in this symposium, ethical and responsible leadership, essential for peace and justice, is difficult to find without “the fundamental doses of humanism and decency urgently.” This emphasizes the importance of Professor Teitel’s work, as the involvement of power leaders remains critical in ongoing conflicts, and Professor Tamar Hostovsky Brandes reflects on this point effectively, examining the potential of the book to understand, among other things, “the central role the U.S. has played in brokering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and the dangers of such unbounded power.
We hope this symposium fosters a broader discussion not only about the historical role of presidents in transitional justice but also about the uncertain future that democracies and international law confront. This experience is relevant for exploring alternative approaches to meet the continuing demands for justice and peace in a world where the core pillars of transitional justice—truth, justice, reconciliation, and non-recurrence—are weakening over time. Professor Teitel offers an alternative perspective, perhaps less demanding but certainly grounded in a healthy dose of bitter realism.
Suggested citation: Mateo Merchán Duque, Symposium on Ruti Teitel’s Presidential Visions of Transitional Justice, Part I: Introduction, Int’l J. Const. L. Blog, Mar. 26, 2026, at: https://www.iconnectblog.com/symposium-on-ruti-teitels-presidential-visions-of-transitional-justice-part-1-introduction/