Focusing on the case study of the Khmer Rouge Trials in Cambodia, this paper asks how transitional justice process are perceived by ordinary citizens who continue to experience political violence and a lack of respect for the rule of law in post-conflict societies. This paper argues that such a vantage point enables to include actors whose perspectives and claims usually fall outside the institutionalised channels for justice claims in transitional justice processes. It further shows how these processes order and prioritise events of political violence in ways that may significantly differ from subjective experiences.
Based on empirical insights gained from qualitative fieldwork in Cambodia, it engages with current conceptual debates on transformative justice, legacy and good governance in the transitional justice scholarship.
