Transnationalism is generally juxtaposed to the national as a process in which the former grows at the expense of the latter. This paper explores the way in which transnational ethical and legal movements are being used to reconstitute, rather than undermine, the national. The focus of the paper is political amnesty, justice and the limits of national reconstruction in Lebanon after the 1975-90 civil war. The predicament of the ‘disappeared’ is used to measure the extent of national reconciliation and the lack of international interest in the individual/ human rights of Lebanese. The inability to redeem the casualties of the war, including the disappeared, is indicative of the cost of impunity and non-accountability for past as well as present crimes. The anthropological significance of recovering the disappeared as part of national reconstruction goes beyond the desire for a ritual socialization of individual death. It is an important medium for the social reconstitution of the individual citizen and the recovery of identity and law within the national community. The paper explores the role transnational human rights movements and legal prosecutions for ‘crimes against humanity’ have played in national reconciliation elsewhere and how they apply to the Lebanese case. It also points to the potential role of the transnational Lebanese diaspora in reconstituting Lebanese state sovereignty and citizenship.