In recent decades, the debate among scholars, lawyers, politicians, and others about how societies deal with their past has been constant and intensive. Legal Institutions and Collective Memories situates the processes of transitional justice at the intersection between legal procedures and the production of collective and shared meanings of the past. Building upon the work of Maurice Halbwachs, this collection of essays emphasizes the extended role and active involvement of contemporary law and legal institutions in public discourse about the past, and explores their impact on the shape that collective memories take in the course of time. The authors uncover a complex pattern of searching for truth, negotiating the past, and cultivating the art of forgetting. Their contributions explore the ambiguous and intricate links between the production of justice, truth, and memory. The essays cover a broad range of legal institutions, countries, and topics. These include transitional trials as