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Narrative Contestation and the Legal Complex in Contemporary Human Rights Prosecutions
Abstract
Between 2008 and 2014 a cascade of domestic trials prosecuting military officials for human rights abuses took place in Turkish courts. These trials were directly related to the shifting of power distribution among elite actors, as uncertainty among legal professionals allowed for previously risky behavior (i.e. the filing of indictments and opening of court proceedings). At the same time, mobilization of the law on behalf of victims of these abuses (Zemans 1983; Epp 1996) has been ongoing since the early 1990s, but has only recently developed into what Halliday et al. (2007) call a legal complex. This intricate network of professionals, from a variety of legal domains, have acted collectively, targeting these human rights abuses, particularly through their submission of amicus curiae briefs to the Turkish Constitutional Court. This paper presents an analysis of the impact of this legal complex, since 2008 by examine how it has affected the contestation of the state’s hegemonic narrative regarding human rights violations from the 1990s. I draw on the legal complex literature highlighting the role of bar associations, the courts, legal academics, and prosecutors, to analyze the mobilization of law and their impact on versions of the “official truth” (Kovras 2014; Lessa 2013). This research is based on data collected by the author through interviews with actors in the legal complex from each of these specific professions, carried out in Turkey (2014-2016). Epp, Charles R. 1996. “Do Bills of Rights Matter? The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” The American Political Science Review, 90(4): 765-779. Halliday TC, Karpik L, Feeley MM, eds. 2007. Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex for Political Change. Oxford: Hart
 Lessa, Francesca. 2013. Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Kovras, Iosif. 2014. Truth Recovery and Transitional Justice: Deferring Human Rights Issues. New York, NY: Routledge. Zemans, Frances Kahn. 1983. “Legal Mobilization: The Neglected Role of the Law in the Political System.” American Political Science Review 77 (3): 690–703.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Turkey
Sub Area
Current Events