Amnesty in Brazil

Amnesty in Brazil has been both surprisingly democratizing and yet stubbornly undemocratic. This book examines restitution in the aftermath of political persecution. It looks at the politics of conciliation over more than a century and reflects on the Brazilian case in the context of broader debates about transitional justice. Ann M. Schneider is concerned with the course of amnesty and addresses how amnesty evolved and functioned as a political institution. She focuses on the outcomes of amnesty laws in the lives of individuals who ostensibly were beneficiaries and argues that the adjudication of amnesties in Brazil marked points of intersection between prevailing and profoundly conservative politics with moments and trends that galvanized the expansion of civil rights. The citizens seeking restitution shaped amnesty into a vehicle to demand and expand citizenship rights and ultimately into an institution synonymous with restitution itself.