Transitional justice has long been established as a rich field of scholarship and policy. An enduring concern has been the mix of advocacy and scholarship and its effects on empirical assessments. A more recent concern is that the international consensus supporting transitional justice is eroding. This article engages these concerns through the lens of international norms. Systematically analyzing international discourse within the United Nations and Amnesty International, the article maps the content of, and changes since 1945 in, the international norm of reparations, which is a core element of transitional justice. The analysis reveals that the strength of the international norm of reparations is not eroding, and that there is broad consensus about its core content. The analysis also highlights claims about reparations that – as assessed in international discourse – are more aspirational than empirical, including that nonstate actors are responsible for reparations and that reparations should be both concrete and symbolic.
