The (In)fairness of Memory, or the (For)getfulness of fairness: Transitional Justice and Transformative Memory in the Realities of Full-Scale Russian-Ukrainian War

Abstract

The оbjective of this study is to conceptualize the process of remembrance as a form of justice in the realities of full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. The key issue is to find an answer to the question of how fair memory is possible and whether memorable justice is possible during war. The methodological strategy of the analysis is an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of such fields of humanities as philosophy of justice, ethics, socio-political studies of transitional justice, and memory studies. As a result of the study, the conceptual and categorical apparatus of research on memory as a form of justice in wartime (based on the distinction between the concepts of fairness, justice, and equity) has been refined; a comparative analysis of classical 20th-century socio-philosophical theories of justice (John Rawls' liberal-egalitarian approach, Friedrich August von Hayek's liberal-legal approach, and Jürgen Habermas' discursive approach), which serve as the conceptual foundation for the understanding of transformative memory and transitional justice;  justifies the basic theoretical and methodological tools for studying the ethical dimension of remembrance as a form of justice in wartime based on a comparative analysis of the concepts of Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, Emmanuel Levinas, and Theodor Adorno; key thematic areas of contemporary research on war memory as a form of “delayed justice” in the Ukrainian interdisciplinary scientific space have been identified (including “dealing with the past” and working with trauma; memory politics; local and global practices of remembrance as the formation of an archive of testimonies and memorialization). The main conclusion of the study is to justify the need to implement the concepts of transitional justice and transformative memory in the sphere of Ukrainian humanitarian discourse devoted to memory policies and commemorative practices in the context of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.