This article uses the framework of transitional justice to examine two prominent examples of national public inquiries into institutional child abuse: the Irish Commission into Child Abuse of 2000–09 and the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse of 2013–2017. It provides a detailed account of the practical workings of each inquiry in the context of the Irish and Australian political and legal environments, with a view to highlighting the particular nation-building function each played in informing a narrative about transitioning from the past to the present. Public inquiries are increasingly used by democratic states as a form of political and legal reckoning for mass crimes committed on children in the care of the state, with inspiration drawn from other examples of the political redress of atrocities (such as war crimes). While transitional justice approaches to peacetime human rights abuses have much to offer in their promise of truth recovery and accountability, they are limited in their ability to achieve justice in the context of consolidated democracies where the ‘transition’ from the past to the present is ambiguous and incomplete. This article points to the benefits of the national public inquiry approach to addressing institutional child abuse, while offering cautions about the expectations of transitional justice in this context, through the landmark examples of Ireland and Australia.

中文翻译：

---

面对过去，改变未来？对机构虐待儿童的公开调查，爱尔兰和澳大利亚

本文使用过渡时期司法框架来研究国家公共机构虐待儿童调查的两个突出例子：2000-09 年爱尔兰虐待儿童委员会和 2013-2017 年澳大利亚皇家儿童性虐待机构回应委员会。它详细介绍了在爱尔兰和澳大利亚政治和法律环境背景下的每项调查的实际运作情况，以突出每项调查在讲述从过去到现在的过渡过程中所发挥的特殊国家建设功能. 民主国家越来越多地使用公开调查作为对国家照顾的儿童犯下的大规模犯罪的政治和法律清算形式，灵感来自对暴行（如战争罪）进行政治补救的其他例子。虽然针对和平时期侵犯人权行为的过渡司法方法在承诺恢复真相和追究责任方面大有裨益，但在从过去到现在的“过渡”不明确的巩固民主背景下，它们实现正义的能力有限并且不完整。本文通过爱尔兰和澳大利亚的具有里程碑意义的例子，指出了国家公共调查方法在解决机构虐待儿童问题上的好处，同时对在这种情况下对过渡司法的期望提出了警告。在从过去到现在的“过渡”是模棱两可和不完整的巩固民主的背景下，他们实现正义的能力有限。本文通过爱尔兰和澳大利亚的具有里程碑意义的例子，指出了国家公共调查方法在解决机构虐待儿童问题上的好处，同时对在这种情况下对过渡司法的期望提出了警告。在从过去到现在的“过渡”是模棱两可和不完整的巩固民主的背景下，他们实现正义的能力有限。本文通过爱尔兰和澳大利亚的具有里程碑意义的例子，指出了国家公共调查方法在解决机构虐待儿童问题上的好处，同时对在这种情况下对过渡司法的期望提出了警告。