Fighting Corruption within the Framework of Transitional Justice: The Impact on Democratic Transition in Tunisia

الملخص

This paper attempts to link transitional justice with anti-corruption in Tunisia and examines the impact of this relationship on the process of democratic transition. The paper examines the legal and practical difficulties that have faced the transitional justice process, especially since the promulgation of Law 53/2013 establishing and regulating transitional justice. It demonstrates the evolution of Tunisian state anti-corruption action in the field according to official reports and cases from the Tunisian judiciary, and through the examination of the constitutional provisions tasking the state with combating corruption. It also looks at the parliament’s role in fighting corruption. The paper shows failures to combat corruption in the transitional justice process, highlighted by the inability to hold businessmen involved in corruption to account, and the negative repercussions of this on the process of democratic transition. The paper finds that combating corruption in Tunisia requires the state and all parties concerned to accept a range of solutions relative and proportionate to the logic of transitional justice as it differs from traditional justice.