This formidable three-volume Encyclopedia contains a wealth of information and is a very useful reference collection, especially for those wanting a global overview, newcomers to the topic and those seeking multidisciplinary approaches. It impressively presents the first ever drawing together of the enormous amount of work that has been done on dealing with past, across the world and across disciplines. The 1440 pages are divided into three volumes. Volume 1 addresses theoretical aspects. Twenty-three entries cover key transitional justice methods, processes, and practices; 28 entries cover vital debates, controversies and pressing issues; 42 critical terms and concepts are explained in a glossary. Volume 2 contains 82 country studies. Volume 3 contains 106 entries on institutions and organizations. Some 166 contributors from around the world participated, chosen because of their ‘expertise in the field and knowledge of relevant cases and topics’ (Preface). The editors sensibly plan that information will be updated and gaps filled in new editions.

The obvious starting place is how the editors define ‘Transitional Justice’. This is found in the short first paragraph of their Preface (xli), and is uncontroversial. However, there has long been challenge to the terminology of ‘Transitional Justice’ and its meaning, the lack of a theoretical framework, the way it is presented, and the way it has been and is used. These controversies deserve a Volume 1 entry. In the Preface, the editors also explain that the choice of topics was ‘driven both by their significance in the field of transitional justice and the availability of contributors’ and the choice of country case studies includes ‘both countries that have reckoned with their past and those that have resisted or evaded such reckoning’. There does seem to be some arbitrariness in the compilation, and more editorial discussion about choices made would have been insightful. For example, the list of ‘Transitional Justice Institutions and Organisations’ (Volume 3) is rather puzzling. It is very strange to see the African Union, European Union, the European Court of Human Rights and even the UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities described as ‘Transitional Justice Institutions and Organisations’. The actual entries did not convince that they had indeed metamorphosed. Given what was ‘in’, it is not clear why the Inter-American and African human rights systems were ‘out’. Further, the Serious Crimes Unit in East Timor was ‘in’ but the Court itself was ‘out’. Why? It is surprising to see the International Centre for Transitional Justice listed here, when Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and important domestic NGOs were not. This NGO is certainly a major player, but surely belongs in discussions on ‘Non-governmental organisations’ or ‘the Transitional Justice industry’. There should perhaps be sections on ‘Human Rights institutions that deal with transitional justice issues’ and a separate entry on the ‘United Nations’, given its role and work in this area.

Navigating the volumes is somewhat challenging. At the back of each volume is a standard index, but it would have been more helpful if the list of topics at the front had provided details of the pages for the entry itself. The front list just states what volume a particular entry is in, so one has manually to work through the various topics to find what is sought. For example, ‘reparations’ was listed at the front as being in Volume I (List of Methods, Processes and Practices), without any pages identified. There were many individual pages listed in the back index under this topic. As a result, one has to work through the book manually page by page to find the actual section called ‘Reparations’. Having found this at page 84, one discovers that there was also something called ‘Reparatory Justice’. The ‘Thematic List of Entries’ had limited use as a guide for navigating around the three volumes.

Linked to navigation, there are also issues about conceptual divisions and cross-referencing. For example, there is an entry on ‘Compensation packages’, in addition to the section on ‘Reparations’ (both are in Volume I), and there is no cross-reference in either section. The ‘Reparations’ section also did not cross-refer to critical institutions such as the International Criminal Court or the Extraordinary Chambers in Cambodia. Going through the logical traditional route, ‘return of property’ and ‘reinstatement of persons into jobs from which they were unjustly removed’ do not seem to be specifically addressed. It is only by chance that one finds an entry on ‘Property Restitution’, which provides a fresh perspective drawing in indigenous issues.

One also wonders why there is no entry on ‘Responsibility’, a critical issue in dealing with the past. Lawyers tend to break this down into State responsibility, criminal responsibility of individuals, civil responsibility of individuals, responsibility of international organizations, and the responsibility of non-State actors, whilst recognizing the important reality that responsibility is not just legal, and can be moral and ethical too. The Encyclopedia has a wealth of entries concerning ‘Responsibility’ but these are scattered throughout Volume I and often seem to till the same ground. Responsibility is also traced through the work of many institutions and country studies in the other two volumes. It would have been helpful to have a conceptual discussion on ‘Responsibility’ in itself, as a prelude to the fragmented reality, with a navigational guide.

An encyclopedia is obviously not meant to be comprehensive on any particular issue, and this work meets the challenge of providing an excellent overview. Some gaps are apparent but this concerns areas where work has not been done, for example on transitional (as opposed to criminal) justice in Bangladesh. Bosnia-Herzegovina, however, is not such a case; there should have been an institutional discussion of the Human Rights Chamber and the International Commission on Missing Persons, and the Commission for Real Property Claims (the Bosnia-Herzegovina entry does not even mention this commission). There are other such significant gaps in relation to South Korea, Germany, and East Timor. However, some matters that may seem to be missing might actually be covered elsewhere, although one has to think laterally to find them. For example, in relation to Israel, the kapo trials, Eichmann, Demjanjuk and Yad Vashem were not where one's first instinct is to look, but were actually discussed under ‘Israel’ in Volume 2. Using the Encyclopedia to full effect thus requires some effort. The timeline (xxxv–xli) in Volume 3 seems idiosyncratic.

Pleasingly, a strong effort was made to include Asian countries, including less common studies of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. China is an obvious candidate for the next edition. The entries in Volume 1 could be enriched with consideration of Asian experiences. For example, the entry on ‘Community Justice versus Transitional Justice’ proceeded with the standard African examples, notably gacaca, and failed to engage with the much-discussed work done in East Timor. New entries on ‘Religion and Transitional Justice’ and ‘Culture and Transitional Justice’ would be good for setting the conceptual framework for more balanced study.

These are relatively minor critiques given the overall achievements of this impressive Encyclopedia. The editors have taken on a monumental task and done an admirable job in compiling this treasure trove of information. Most readers will learn about concepts, approaches, work, countries and institutions that they are not familiar with. One learns from Chandra Sriram that there is something called a ‘Zone of Impunity’, from Felipe Gomez Isa that ‘Fever of Atonement’ means something in the Transitional Justice world, and that people are working on ‘Auratic Sites’. This Encyclopedia enriches our understanding about Transitional Justice. This important work also has the potential to enrich further the perspectives of its contributors, expert as they already are in a particular area; we can look forward to updated entries in the next edition being even richer for the broader comparative contextualization that this current edition provides.