This article analyses complexities of time in transitional justice (tj) and categorises the temporal dichotomies of tj processes as timeboundness/timelessness and linearity/circularity, challenging the dominant linear conception of time in the field. Criminal justice, as the most dominant tj pillar, is seen as timebound, battling with the passage of time to avoid justice being denied or delayed. By its procedural nature, criminal justice is less capable of addressing any circularity or repetition of violence but rather treats acts of violence as ruptures in linear time. Field research in Bosnia and Herzegovina shows that the less conventional tj processes of education and memorialisation are often given the normative content of timelessness and utilised for their capacity to capture some of the repetition of harm. In addition to establishing these distinct temporal regimes and noting any conflicts between them, the article seeks to reconcile them by repositioning criminal justice within tj as a factual and legitimating foundation for education and memorialisation.

本文分析了过渡正义 ( tj )中时间的复杂性，并将tj过程的时间二分法归类为时间界限/永恒性和线性/循环性，挑战了该领域占主导地位的线性时间概念。刑事司法作为最主要的tj支柱，被视为有时限的，与时间的流逝作斗争以避免司法被拒绝或延迟。就其程序性质而言，刑事司法无法解决任何循环或暴力重复，而是将暴力行为视为线性时间的破裂。在波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那的实地研究表明，不太传统的tj教育和纪念过程通常被赋予永恒的规范内容，并利用它们捕捉某些重复伤害的能力。除了建立这些不同的时间制度并指出它们之间的任何冲突之外，本文还试图通过将tj内的刑事司法重新定位为教育和纪念的事实和合法基础来调和它们。