Lawyers, Conflict and Transition (resubmission)

Lead Research Organisation: Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Law

Abstract

CONTEXT
This project will explore the role of lawyers in transitions from violence or authoritarianism. Despite the centrality of the rule of law to the contemporary theory and practice of transitional justice, there is little emphasis in the relevant literature on the role of lawyers outside the courts or indeed as the 'real people' at work in the system. Although the importance of different forms of agency exercised by lawyers in peaceful societies is well established, analysis of their diverse roles in transitions is significantly underdeveloped in the literature. Lawyers are often key actors in strategic litigation or popular mobilisation before transitions, in political negotiations prior to and during a transition, in enacting legal reforms and testing their meaning in the courts, and in shaping the work of past-focused initiatives that address issues such as truth, accountability and reconciliation.
AIM
To conduct a comparative and thematic study of lawyering at key historic stages in conflicted and transitional societies and to produce both academic outputs and a range of practical documents designed to be of assistance to local and international actors. The fieldwork will be conducted in Israel/Palestine, Cambodia, Chile, South Africa and Tunisia.
OBJECTIVES
(a) To explore overlapping themes concerning the role of lawyers in societies either enduring or emerging from violent conflict including the performance of lawyers at key periods (for example of violence or repression), in popular mobilisation efforts, during periods of peacemaking, political negotiation and implementation, and (where relevant) in dealing with the past.
(b) To deploy a comparative case studies research methodology involving an extensive literature analysis, fieldwork in jurisdictions chosen to explore the themes listed above, and the development of outputs for each jurisdiction accessible to local and international actors. The fieldwork will include semi-structured interviews based on a bespoke research instrument.
(c) To disseminate the findings and related academic and policy outputs through a project website, a major international conference in Belfast and presentations at a range of international and national conferences. Academic publications will include one monograph and four scholarly articles.
POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS AND BENEFITS
At the academic level, through the scholarly monograph and journal articles, the project is designed to develop a comparative understanding of the sociology of lawyering in conflicted and transitional societies which can also enhance knowledge of the agentic capacity of lawyers in settled societies. It will construct a bridgehead between transitional justice and the sociology of the legal professions and further scholarship which critiques excessive legalism in the field. Such a restricted perspective has encouraged a world view of legal certainties, moral absolutes and simplistic notions of the professional detached lawyer, none of which chime with the messy real world of societies in or emerging from conflict. Our project is designed to encourage a more holistic understanding of the role of lawyers in conflict and transition based on an extensive comparative study. Such a view will be of direct interest to scholars working in disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, political science, criminology, psychology, history, law and peace and conflict studies. At a practical level, the range of policy-orientated publications (translated into local languages) and the website are designed to be of use to local actors in each of the jurisdictions including practising judges and lawyers, legal collectives (Bar Councils, Law Societies and equivalent), government departments, civil society activists and other NGOs. In addition, the project will be highly relevant to global entities including the United Nations, policymakers and donors, international legal collectives and transnational civil society actors

Planned Impact

WHO WILL BENEFIT FROM THIS RESEARCH?

Beyond enhancing academia in a range of disciplines, this project will impact positively on non-academic users in the case study jurisdictions. These users will include local legal professionals and their collectives (Bar Councils, Law Societies and equivalent), as well as government departments that work closely with legal professionals or seek to address ongoing or past violence, such as justice departments, police services, human rights commissions and other oversight bodies. Furthermore, this project will benefit civil society activists, including organisations in which lawyers are active, as well as groups that seek to use legal tools to address past crimes.

Internationally, this project will enhance the work of actors who support rule of law and transitional justice projects through funding, training programmes for legal professionals or secondment of experts. Policymakers and donors that engage in this work include the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organisation of American States, the African Union, the British Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the US State Department and Agency for International Development. In addition, the project intends to benefit international legal collectives, such as the International Bar Association, and national legal collectives that work overseas to promote the rule of law in transitional states, such as the American Bar Association and the International Committee of the English Bar Council. It will also engage with the work of transnational civil society actors, such as the International Center for Transitional Justice, the International Commission of Jurists, Avocats Sans Frontières, Advocates for Human Rights, Lawyers for Human Rights, Human Rights Lawyers Association and Human Rights First, which work with lawyers to promote transitional justice around the world.

Finally, the project will contribute to the research skills and experience of the project team.

HOW WILL THEY BENEFIT FROM THE RESEARCH?

In the case study jurisdictions, users will benefit from the project during the investigation and dissemination phases in several ways. For example, the project team will develop a range of accessible and constructive outputs for local actors, which will be translated where appropriate and freely disseminated. These outputs will aim to improve the capacity and efficiency of local legal professional associations and civil society organisations through highlighting applicable international standards, networks and funding sources. The project and its outputs will also enhance the capacity of local actors to protect rights, develop creative legal arguments, establish civil society groups or campaign for legal and institutional reforms.

Internationally, the project will use targeted briefing papers, academic and policy outputs and an international conference to engage with policymakers, donors and transnational civil society actors. This research will benefit these actors by broadening their awareness of the productive and restrictive roles that lawyers play in transitions. This research will enhance the efficiency of international donor programmes seeking to promote the rule of law and transitional justice by highlighting potential obstacles. Furthermore, by facilitating knowledgeable and effective cooperation amongst local and global actors, this project will contribute to evidence-based policymaking by international actors and raise international awareness of the need to support lawyers and professional associations that seek to enforce human rights standards.

Finally, the research team will develop their research skills through the experience of conducting documentary analysis and qualitative research. In addition, they will participate in relevant training programmes offered by the universities.
 
Description SIGNIFICANT NEW KNOWLEDGE GENERATED

The core component of our field research was qualitative interviews with more than 120 lawyers, judges, human rights activists and legal academics across the six jurisdictions. This complex dataset (in excess of 1.25 million words) was coded and analysed using NVivo software according to 27 carefully selected 'parent' themes and more than 250 'child' nodes. It is not possible in the space permitted to identify all of the areas in which new knowledge was generated but we highlight below some indicative examples.

NEW RESEARCH QUESTIONS OPENED UP
This international comparative study set out to answer new research questions concerning how conflict and transition shape the intersections between lawyers and other civil society, political and legal actors; the role of lawyers in shaping local and international understandings of the 'rule of law' in unsettled transitional periods; the extent to which transitional contexts may be viewed as 'exceptional' from the experiences of settled democracies; and the relevance (or not) of established themes on the relationship between law, lawyers and political and social change (such as legal culture, colonial and post-colonial lawyering and legal pluralism).

Taken together these research questions delineated a new comparative sociology of lawyering perspective which captures in unprecedented detail the role and agency of lawyers in conflict and transition - both within and beyond the courtroom. In addition to these broad themes outlined in the original proposal, a number of important additional new research questions emerged during the project.

1. Perceptions
The project explored in great detail the genuinely heroic struggles of some cause-lawyers as well as the effects, particularly in South Africa, of a tendency to overly eulogise 'struggle' or 'cause' lawyers.

2. Ethics
In contexts where the professional ethics upheld by Bar Associations were inevitably skewed toward supporting authoritarian or repressive regimes, we discovered novel and innovative ways in which cause lawyers developed their own ethical base and 'moral community' of like-minded lawyers in managing their relations with politically motivated clients.

3. Cause Lawyering Within the State
In situations of transition we have been particularly struck by the ability of individual lawyers to adapt to radically different political contexts, sometimes making the transition from working in opposition to the state to serving within a new political dispensation - in effect becoming cause-lawyers within the state.

4. Resistance
Instructive debates on strategies of legal resistance by lawyers centred on the concepts of boycott and performance i.e. in what context was it appropriate for lawyers to withdraw their services from unjust or unfair legal proceedings or to use courts primarily as sites of symbolic resistance. In addition, the project explored strategies where lawyers saw themselves as politically self-conscious archivists in contexts such as Chile (under the Pinochet regime) lodging habeus corpus applications to deliberate create paper trails that their disappeared client had actually existed.
Exploitation Route As part of our ethical commitment to give 'something back' to our international research participants we pledged to produce two user-friendly reports for each jurisdiction under scrutiny. The themes for these were suggested by interviewees. In total, we produced 12 such reports for local users. These were translated into Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish and Khmer as appropriate. Feedback from participants was unanimously positive.

We also undertook to produce and deliver three briefing papers targeted at international users such as the UN, the International Bar Association, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and others. Again these were very well received.

At our final conference in Belfast, it became apparent that the themes we explored in an international context had immediate relevance for local actors in Northern Ireland. For example, one attendee noted: "As a government lawyer here in NI part of my role includes dealing with the legacy of the past and the litigation of inquests relating to same. This conference was such a welcome opportunity to hear about the challenges of other lawyers in other jurisdictions. There were so many thought-provoking talks - every single speaker was fascinating." As noted elsewhere on ResearchFish, Professors McEvoy and Mallinder and Dr Bryson have all been centrally involved in 'Dealing with the Past' work in Northern Ireland and have applied lessons learned in the course of this international research project to that task.
Sectors Education

Government

Democracy and Justice
URL http://lawyersconflictandtransition.org/
 
Description Impact on Legal Professionals, Legal Collectives, Government Departments and Civil Society Actors in Case Study Sites Nurturing and developing good working relations with a wide range of legal, human rights and civil society organisations has been central to the success of the fieldwork for this project. As part of our ethical commitment to 'put something back' into the societies and organisations being scrutinised we pledged to produce two accessible policy documents for each of the six jurisdictions (translated into local languages). This was greatly valued by the participants in the research. For example, a South African interviewee stated: 'For me that's wonderful. I use international researchers instrumentally, you knowwhen I get involved in this kind of thingI use you for sub-south linkages, so I'm going to use you to, you know, to know more about Palestine, Chile and those other placesbecause I've got this theme that the south must, you know, intake much more and do things together much, much more - but we don't have the resources, you know. So if you go to Palestine and, you know, you create those linkages - for me, it's also selfish from that perspective, to say 'wow these guys - I can use them for my sub south vision, you know'. So if, you know, if you're all South African I'm not very interested, but if they're comparative studies I'm much more interestedbut that's wonderful, this offer [to produce two reports].' Speaking to the benefits of one of our reports for international donors a Cambodian lawyer stated that it will - 'help to document the real state of affairs in Cambodia and hopefully deepen the understanding of foreign donors working in Cambodia. This information will support better decision making on how to use their grants.' Impact on International Actors In addition to these 'local' policy papers we also committed to preparing policy briefings for key international organisations. One of these focuses on the role of international bar associations and the second explores the prospect of improving the effectiveness of international lawyers. Reflecting on the latter, a US-based attorney and founder of the rule of law and legal empowerment network 'Reinventing the Rules' contacted us to say that she had found our recently published paper on SSRN. She added: 'This is one of the best and most important reports I've read all year and I will be highlighting it on our website in the coming weeks. I started asking attorneys and organizations last year whether they were providing any training on cross-cultural skills prior to them working on a rule of law or legal empowerment program and wasn't able to find anyone who had. I just wanted to drop you both a quick note and thank you for writing on this very important topic. I am looking forward to bringing more attention to your timely work on this!' As part of our dissemination strategy we email all new reports directly to the relevant cohort of individual interviewees, and to our extensive network of international contacts including scholars, policymakers, legal professionals, donors and civil society actors. Each recipient is encouraged to forward the report to their colleagues and associates and to publicise it on their networks. All of our project updates and findings are available on our bespoke website. In the course of the last 18 months (Sept 2014 - Feb 2016) this website has registered over 6000 unique visits. In addition to our own direct dissemination there have been more than 350 independent downloads of our local and international policy reports. Political Prisoners and the Medical Profession In the course of our fieldwork in Israel a number of interviewees expressed particular interest in the PI's previous research on politically motivated prisoners. The NGO Physicians for Human Rights specifically asked if it might be possible to facilitate collaboration between them and ex-prisoner organisations in Northern Ireland. Drawing on his extensive contacts in the field the PI subsequently engaged an Israeli scholar based at the Centre for Conflict Transformation and Social Change at Queen's University Belfast to assist with the development of this collaboration. This resulted in an unanticipated but highly significant impact outcome for this project. A conference is now scheduled to take place at QUB in May 2016. It will bring together the relevant Israeli and Northern Ireland NGOs and civil society actors to debate the 'real-world' challenges of applying medical and legal ethics in a prison context. Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland This project emerged from a range of practical and scholarly activities previously undertaken by the applicants, concerning the themes of amnesties and transitional justice (AH/J013897/1 'Amnesties, Prosecution and the Public Interest in the Northern Ireland Transition' and AH/E008984/1 'Beyond Legalism: Amnesties, Transition and Conflict Transformation'). It provided the platform to further develop and invigorate work on these broad themes by examining the role of lawyers in a range of carefully chosen international contexts. A more direct opportunity to apply the emerging lessons and findings to local policymaking and thus to have a significant societal impact arose in December 2014 as a result of the signing of the Stormont House Agreement. The PI secured follow-on funding to examine in detail the legislative framework for the implementation of the past-related elements of that Agreement. Three members of the 'Lawyers, Conflict and Transition' team - together with representatives of the main Human Rights organisation in Northern Ireland - were directly engaged in this work. It resulted in the publication in September 2015 of a 'Model Bill' - an indicative statute that set out in detail how the Agreement might be implement in a way that is fair, transparent and human-rights compliant. In drafting this legislation the team drew directly on experiences and lessons documented in the course of our fieldwork for the 'Lawyers' project. For example, our lobbying efforts in the local sphere were also directly influenced by documentation of the strategic litigation strategies employed in the various international case studies. This work on the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement resulted in two high-profile conferences in Belfast in 2015. Each was attended by: senior negotiators representing the Northern Ireland Office, the Irish Government and the main political parties in Northern Ireland; representatives of the key victims' NGOs; members of the local Gender Principles group; and a wide cross-section of academics, journalists and civil society actors. The specific impacts are detailed under the appropriate headings. For example, Professor Mallinder was subsequently invited to deliver the annual Human Rights Day lecture in Belfast and to discuss the broader societal impact of this work in an interview for a local television station and Professor McEvoy was invited to address a committee hearing of the US Congress on the ongoing challenge of dealing with the past in Northern Ireland. Together with colleagues from RightsWatch UK and Amnesty International the 'Model Bill' drafting team also engaged in an intensive round of lobbying including numerous direct meetings with senior negotiators at the NIO, the NI Department of Justice, the Irish government and various political representatives. A roundtable was also held at Westminster to brief Labour, Conservative and Northern Ireland MPs on the key issues and to discuss future lobbying tactics. The 'Model Bill' team (McEvoy, Mallinder and Bryson) have continued to work closely with a range of political parties, the British and Irish governments, police, army, ex-combatants and victims' and legacy practitioner organisations to find a way to address the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland. The Statute of Limitations Debate Following the arrest and prosecution of a number of British soldiers for Northern Ireland conflict related offences, the UK Defence Select Committee held hearings and produced a report recommending a statute of limitations (amnesty) for state actors and a truth recovery process. Professor Kieran McEvoy was the only Northern Ireland based academic invited to give evidence to a House of Commons Defence Select Committee (HC DSC). The Select Committee drew directly and explicitly from the options outlined in his written paper (appended to the report p.20) in its exploration of the options for government and his evidence and research is cited 16 times in its report. The HC DSC report concludes (p.13), '...to borrow Professor McEvoy's phrase, the space for legal imagination resides, in responding to historic allegations against former service personnel.' In addition to working with politicians and officials, McEvoy has also regularly directly briefed senior Army officials, including in October 2019, the head of the British Army, Chief of The General Staff General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith. Obviously, any decision to introduce an amnesty impacts directly on the work of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland. Former DPP Barra McGrory QC has said 'Over the last decade Professor McEvoy has established a reputation as perhaps the academic authority in Northern Ireland working across all legacy related matters.' On the specific issue of an amnesty he described McEvoy's evidence to the Select Committee and related work as 'measured, knowledgeable and legally robust while at the same time seeking to find principled but workable solutions to these complex and challenging issueshis contributions have constituted very impactful interventions'. Impact on Legal Academics and Practitioners Beyond Case Study Sites The team has exceeded its targets in terms of dissemination of findings at national and international conferences (as the project gathered pace and momentum, invitations to speak at conferences and seminars naturally increased). These exchanges with other academics and legal practitioners provided the foundation for jointly published academic papers and follow-on funding. They also inspired more junior academics to develop related projects. For example, at an early stage in the development of this project a group of postgraduate students at Queen's University Belfast were inspired to run a one-day international conference examining the synergy and cross-learning between the experience of 'lawyers in times of conflict' and dealing with the legacy of violence.
First Year Of Impact 2015
Sector Education,Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Societal

Policy & public services
 
Description Advice to major EU-funded 'Accounts of the Conflict' project
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact Dr Anna Bryson joined the Advisory Committee for the University of Ulster's 'Accounts of the Conflict' project. Experience garnered in the course of our ESRC-funded international research project on lawyers in conflict and transition has been brought to bear on a local EU-sponsored initiative. 'Accounts of the Conflict' was established to build a digital archive to provide for the long-term storage of stories related to 'the Troubles' in, and about, Northern Ireland. Dr Bryson has provided specific advice on ethical and legal issues related to collecting, editing and disseminating senstitive qualititative interviews.
URL http://accounts.ulster.ac.uk/accounts
 
Description Evidence given to UK Defence Select Committee Significantly Influenced Report on Statute of Limitations for State Actors
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact The Statute of Limitations Debate Following the arrest and prosecution of a number of British soldiers for Northern Ireland conflict related offences, the UK Defence Select Committee held hearings and produced a report recommending a statute of limitations (amnesty) for state actors and a truth recovery process. Professor Kieran McEvoy was the only Northern Ireland based academic invited to give evidence to a House of Commons Defence Select Committee (HC DSC). The Select Committee drew directly and explicitly from the options outlined in his written paper (appended to the report p.20) in its exploration of the options for government and his evidence and research is cited 16 times in its report. The HC DSC report concludes (p.13), '...to borrow Professor McEvoy's phrase, the space for legal imagination resides, in responding to historic allegations against former service personnel.' In addition to working with politicians and officials, McEvoy has also regularly directly briefed senior Army officials, including in October 2019, the head of the British Army, Chief of The General Staff General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith. Obviously, any decision to introduce an amnesty impacts directly on the work of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Northern Ireland. Former DPP Barra McGrory QC has said 'Over the last decade Professor McEvoy has established a reputation as perhaps the academic authority in Northern Ireland working across all legacy related matters.' On the specific issue of an amnesty he described McEvoy's evidence to the Select Committee and related work as 'measured, knowledgeable and legally robust while at the same time seeking to find principled but workable solutions to these complex and challenging issueshis contributions have constituted very impactful interventions'.
 
Description Expert Evidence to Defence Select Committee, subsequently cited extensively in Select Commitee Report March 2017
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact In 2017, following the arrest and prosecution of British soldiers for NI conflict-related offences, British army veterans began to campaign for an end to what they dubbed a 'witch-hunt' against security personnel. The Model Bill team submitted a detailed written submission on this issue to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee (DSC) [S6a] and McEvoy gave oral evidence, arguing that a blanket statute of limitations for soldiers would be unlawful under international law and would inevitably be applied to former paramilitaries [S6a]. He put forward an alternative method of reducing conflict-related jail time to 'zero' while retaining the prosecutorial, truth recovery and reconciliation components of the SHA. McEvoy's oral evidence and the team's underpinning research is cited 16 times in the DSC report and the Committee drew directly and explicitly from these options in their written report to government. It concludes '...to borrow Professor McEvoy's phrase, the space for legal imagination resides in responding to historic allegations against former service personnel'
URL https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmdfence/1064/1064.pdf
 
Description Input to 'Guidelines for Community Impact'
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact Anna Bryson joined an Interdisciplinary Research Group at Queen's University Belfast. One of the outputs of this group is a toolkit entitled 'Guidelines for Community Impact'. It is designed to ensure a positive impact for university research with community actors, particularly in the field of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice. It will also result in May 2016 in a conference bringing together a wide range of academics, community-based practitioners and policy makers.
 
Description Major Influence on Public Conversation on NI Legacy Issues 2015-2021 - Part of a 4* REF Impact Case Study in REF 2021
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact The combined significance of the research and impact of McEvoy, Mallinder and Bryson is its profound, sustained and multi-layered impact upon the legal, policy and public understanding of dealing with the legacy of the Northern Ireland (NI) conflict. First, their local and international research on amnesties, truth recovery and the value added of oral history to transitional justice has directly influenced efforts to deal with the past in NI since 2014. Second, working in partnership with the local human rights NGO the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), they have produced a substantial body of policy-focused research which has directly impacted political negotiations in NI (2014-2015), UK draft legislation (2018) and the deliberations of parliamentary select committees in the UK (2017/2019/2020) on legacy in NI. Third, from 2017, their research has directly influenced the political and public debate on a statute of limitations for security force veterans who served in NI. The reach of their impact has included the UK and Irish governments, NI political parties, civil society groups (including victims and survivors) and the United Nations
URL https://www.dealingwiththepastni.com/
 
Description Work with Physicians for Human Rights and Coiste na nIarchimi
Geographic Reach Europe 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact In the course of our fieldwork in Israel for the Lawyers, Conflict & Transition project we were asked to facilitate collaboration between the Israeli based NGO 'Physicians for Human Rights' and Coiste na nIarchimi, the largest ex-prisoners organisation in Ireland. A conference was subsequently scheduled for May 2016. This will enable the exchange of ideas on best practice and the cross-fertilisation of ideas concerning human rights in a prison and health context. It is anticipated that this will lead to further collaboration and to improvements in the delivery of services on the part of both NGOs concerned.
 
Description DFID
Amount £4,800,000 (GBP)
Organisation Government of the UK 
Department Department for International Development (DfID)
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2015 
End 06/2018
 
Description ESRC Standard Grant
Amount £675,500 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/N010825/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2016 
End 05/2019
 
Title NVivo project file containing over 120 interview transcripts filtered into more than 250 nodes - and corresponding codebook 
Description Our 123 interview transcripts were carefully coded using NVivo software analysis. The corresponding codebook contains descriptors for more than 250 thematic nodes. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Provided To Others? No  
Impact We have shared our codebook and framework with several other researchers embarking on similarly complex qualitative data analysis. One such project was recently funded by the AHRC. 
 
Description Institute for Conflict Transformation and Social Change 
Organisation Queen's University Belfast
Department Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Principal Investigator, Professor Kieran McEvoy, was invited to participate in a multi-disciplinary institute at Queen's University Belfast. In his capacity as Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Conflict Transformation and Social Change he has drawn on the research for Lawyers in Conflict and Transition to provide briefing papers for staff at the Institute and has convened funding and research workshops for postgraduate students and staff.
Collaborator Contribution The Institute for Conflict Transformation and Social Change provides a gateway to further interdisciplinary and international collaboration. It provides opportunities for dissemination of our project outputs and creates opportunities to build follow-on research programmes. There have also been practical connections and outcomes e.g. one of the Research Fellows at the Institute, Dr Milena Komarova, has offered to assist with the organisation of a roundtable for one of the Israeli NGOs that we have collaborated with in the field (Physicians for Human Rights).
Impact This is a multi-disciplinary collaboration. The relevant disciplines include law, history, anthropology, sociology and political science.
Start Year 2014
 
Description Physicians for Human Rights and Coiste na nIarchimi 
Organisation Physicians for Human Rights
Country United States 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution The PI facilitated contact and ultimately collaboration between the Israeli NGO, Physicians for Human rights, the Northern Ireland ex-prisoners organisation, Coiste na nIarchimi, and a group of academics based at the Institute for Conflict Transformation and Social Change at Queen's University Belfast.
Collaborator Contribution Our partners bring to this collaboration, on the one hand, the unique skills and experience of physicians and scientists who document human rights abuses in Israel and, on the other, the significant direct experience and contacts of the largest ex-prisoner network in Northern Ireland.
Impact Conference scheduled to take place at Queen's University Belfast in May 2016. Disciplines involved include law, medicine, and conflict transformation.
Start Year 2014
 
Description 'Lawyers, Causes and Political Violence: Re-examining Legal Professionalism in Conflicted and Transitional Societies', Invited Paper at Faculty of Law, University of Oxford 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact Professor McEvoy's paper explored the ways in which cause lawyers navigate a range of complex ethical issues including: the versions of professionalism (including notions of neutrality) which are constructed by lawyers in such settings; the relationship between such lawyers and their professional associations and the ways in which such challenges are (or are not) addressed in backward looking transitional justice mechanisms exploring the role that lawyers play during periods of conflict or authoritarianism. The talk sparked lively discussion amongst both international students and faculty members at the Oxford University School of Law.

Oxford Transitional Justice Research (OTJR) is an inter-disciplinary network of more than 100 Oxford staff and students working broadly on issues of transition in societies recovering from mass conflict and/or repressive rule. OTJR is dedicated to producing high-quality scholarship that connects intimately to practical and policy questions in transitional justice, focusing on the following themes: Prosecutions, Truth Commissions, Local and traditional practices, Compensation and reparations, Theoretical and philosophical debates in transitional justice, Institutional reform and Archives of tribunal and other transitional justice materials. The OTJR seminar programme is held weekly and reflects these aims. This seminar was a critically important opportunity to disseminate information about the Lawyers, Conflict and Transition project and to develop contacts for future research collaborations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://lawyersconflictandtransition.org/professor-mcevoy-discusses-lawyers-causes-and-political-viol...
 
Description Annual Conference of Socio-Legal Studies Association, Specialist Stream, University of Lancaster 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact Invited to convene specialist stream on Transitions from Conflict: the Role and Agency of Lawyers at the annual Socio-Legal Studies Association conference in Lancaster. The papers submitted and accepted are as follows:



SESSION ONE:

152 - Alex Batesmith. Agents of change: can Myanmar's lawyers help re-shape the justice sector following the November 2015 elections?

195 - Anna Bryson. Obstacles, Opportunities and Obduracy: Women Lawyers and the Struggle for Change in Conflict & Transition

425 - Kieran McEvoy. Lawyering, Legislation and Transition: Dealing with the Past 'From Below.'



SESSION TWO:

153 - James Sweeney. Kosovo - from traditional to transitional justice, and back again?

335 - Thomas Bundschuh. Rule of law schizophrenia as an obstacle to transitional justice and how to overcome it

370 - Yassin Brunger. The Art and Science of Lawyering in International Criminal Trials

413 - Lynsey Mitchell. The Limits of Law: Mistaking Legal Accountability for Protection during Conflict
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Annual Conference of Socio-Legal Studies Association, Specialist Stream, University of Warwick 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact First opportunity to air the findings from our international field research. Feedback was most encouraging. Several excellent questions asked which will help to shape and inform our unfolding analysis.

Discussion generated ideas for a number of scholarly outputs, further to the research articles and monograph already planned.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://lawyersconflictandtransition.org/socio-legal-studies-association-2015-annual-conference/
 
Description Annual International Conference of Americal Society of Criminology, Roundtable, San Francisco 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact Excellent discussion and ideas generated for international briefing papers arising from Lawyers, Conflict and Transition project research.
Opportunity to engage in in-depth discussions with the Israel consultant for the Lawyers, Conflict and Transition project - remit for report for local practitioners subsequently agreed.

Title and scope of two of our international briefing papers agreed; remit for paper for local practitioners in Israel decided and assigned.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://lawyersconflictandtransition.org/project-represented-american-society-criminology-san-francis...
 
Description Annual International Law and Society Conference, Specialist Roundtable, Seattle 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact Talks sparked good discussion, generated interest from publishers and reached several hundred researchers via twitter and online conference reports.

After the talk one of the editors of a leading international law journal invited us to submit our findings to his journal.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://lawyersconflictandtransition.org/law-society-seattle-2015/
 
Description Blog on situation in Gaza for 'Campaign for Social Science' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact The Campaign for Social Science aims to raise the profile of social science in the public, media and Parliament, at a time of important changes to funding teaching and research in academia. It is read widely across the UK and beyond. Dr Louise Mallinder's article reflects our project commitment to disseminate the findings of our research and to influence public opinion and policy where possible.

Potential interviewees in Tunisia read the article and subsequently agreed to participate in our research programme.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL https://campaignforsocialscience.org.uk/news/news-focus-israel-gaza
 
Description Briefing with UN Rapporteur for Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Professor Kieran McEvoy, Professor Louise Mallinder and Dr Anna Bryson were joined by ten other transitional justice scholars who wished to explore with Pablo de Greiff the challenges of addressing the legacy of the Northern Ireland conflict. The specific context for this expert roundtable was the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement.

Pablo de Greiff specifically asked for assistance with the drafting of his final report on the visit which will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2016. Professor McEvoy has since been in touch by email with some further preliminary observations and a promise to provide further input and advice as the report develops in spring/summer 2016.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description European Society of Criminology, invited paper, Porto, Portugal 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Participants in your research and patient groups
Results and Impact Talk sparked lively disussion on 'The Lawyer, The Client and the Cause' and thus encouraged transnational dialogue on the issues raised by the Lawyers, Conflict & Transition project.

Several delegates asked for links to recently published reports. Noted increase in visits to website after conference (google analytics).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://lawyersconflictandtransition.org/professor-mcevoy-addresses-european-society-of-criminology-c...
 
Description Evidence to UK Defence Select Committee 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Following the arrest and prosecution of a number of British soldiers for Northern Ireland conflict related offences, the UK Defence Select Committee held hearings and produced a report recommending a statute of limitations (amnesty) for state actors and a truth recovery process. Professor Kieran McEvoy was the only Northern Ireland based academic invited to give evidence to a House of Commons Defence Select Committee (HC DSC). The Select Committee drew directly and explicitly from the options outlined in his written paper (appended to the report p.20) in its exploration of the options for government and his evidence and research is cited 16 times in its report. The HC DSC report concludes (p.13), '...to borrow Professor McEvoy's phrase, the space for legal imagination resides, in responding to historic allegations against former service personnel.' In addition to working with politicians and officials, McEvoy has also regularly directly briefed senior Army officials, including in October 2019, the head of the British Army, Chief of The General Staff General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Expert evidence to Irish Parliament 'Legacy Issues and Victims/Survivors of Violence: Benchmarks for Legitimacy in the SHA Legislation. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Expert legal analysis on legacy issues related to pending legislation on dealing with the past. Presentation and report also referred to role of lawyers in same.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Feature Article in Belfast Telegraph 'Is the price of an amnesty for the security forces just too high to contemplate?' June 19th 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a feature article on the legality of amnesties in dealing with the past and implications of same for the peace process
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Feature Article in the Guardian 'Investigations into the Troubles are vital - and that includes ex-soldiers.' 11th May 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a feature article in the guardian newspaper addressing key issues related to dealing with the past in Northern Ireland concerning viability of an amnesty for soldiers and its relationship to truth recovery.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Feature article in Belfast Telegraph 'Stormont legacy issues impasse can be overcome with legal imagination.' 5th April 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a feature article in the main Unionist paper in Northern Ireland proposed some legally imaginative solutions to the political impass on dealing with the past
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Feature newspaper article in the Irish Times The Legacy of the Troubles and the Law March 30th 2018 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a feature article in the Irish Times, the most respected broadsheet newspaper in Ireland on the role of lawyers and law in dealing with the past in Northern Ireland
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description Human Rights, Legacy and Cultures of Violence in Northern Ireland. Plenary address at Conference, Hebrew University Law School 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact This was an invited plenary address on the role of lawyers in engaging in research and activism on dealing with the past.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2018
 
Description International conference on 'Lawyers in Times of Conflict' - Plenary Address - Queen's University Belfast 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact More than one hundred participants came to hear Professor McEvoy speak about the role of lawyers in the Northern Ireland conflict and transition:
http://vimeo.com/channels/526710/82191224

He was joined by ten panellists representing the Basque country (Iratxe Urizar), China (Dr Ting Xu), Colombia (Professor Sara Chandler), India (Simarjit Kaur), Nigeria (Professor Simon Uchenna Ortuanya), Palestine (Andrea Becker), Russia (Professor Philip Leach), Turkey (Deniz Arbet Nejbir), and South Africa (Judge Essa Moosa).

The conference was attended by 100 delegates, including experts and students from academic, legal and activist backgrounds, who contributed to the discussion by providing thought-provoking questions and remarks.

This address to an international audience undoubtedly helped to raise awareness about our project. Delegates enquired about the remit of the wider project and subsequently made a number of excellent suggestions as to individuals that we should interview in South Africa and Palestine: these were duly followed up.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
URL http://vimeo.com/channels/526710/82191224
 
Description Mallinder and McEvoy interviews with NVTV Focal Point for project conference (2016) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Mallinder and McEvoy are interviewed for Lawyers Project conference by NVTV Focal Point (broadcast 15 October 2016)
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.nvtv.co.uk/shows/focal-point-friday-15-october-2016/
 
Description Mallinder paper at project conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Mallinder presented a paper entitled 'Political Causes, Public Duty and Professional Integrity: The Challenges Faced by State Lawyers in Conflict & Transition' at the Lawyers, Conflict and Transition conference, Belfast (13 October 2016). The feedback forms on the event highlighted that local government lawyers who were in the audience found the paper highly relevant to their work. Mallinder intends to build on these links in preparing an article on this topic.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
 
Description Mallinder presentation at Hebrew University 2014 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact During our fieldwork in Israel, Mallinder presented a paper entitled 'Lawyering in "Limited" Democracies: Preliminary Reflections from Cambodia', Third Annual Minerva Jerusalem International Conference on Transitional Justice, Hebrew University (18 May 2014). Local human rights lawyers in Israel said afterwards that the paper was thought-provoking as many of challenges faced in Cambodia had resonances for their own local context.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Mallinder presentation at Law and Society conference 2015 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Mallinder presented a paper entitled 'Swapping Sides: Political Transitions and Cause Lawyers within the State' at the Law and Society Association Conference, Seattle (28 May 2015).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Mallinder presentation at SLSA conference (2015) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Mallinder presented 'Conflict, Transition and Lawyers within the State', Socio-Legal Studies Association Conference, Warwick (1 April 2015). This paper was presented as part of a stream organised by the project team.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
 
Description Mallinder: Blog on IntlLawGrrls 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This was a post on IntlLawGrrls blog that was timed to coincide with the project conference. It is a US-based blog that is ranked in the top-25 of law professors' blogs. IntLawGrrls aims to give voice to women scholars, lawyers, policymakers, leaders, activists, on issues related to international law, policy and practice, from arbitration to human rights to trade, among other topics of expertise.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://ilg2.org/author/louisemall/
 
Description McEvoy & Mallinder presentation at American Society of Criminology conference 2014 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Mallinder and McEvoy presented 'Lawyers and Transitional Justice: Preliminary Reflections' American Society of Criminology Annual Convention, San Francisco (November 2014). Policymakers in the audience asked us to share our slides after the event.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description Peace and Transitional Justice, Invited Paper, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Dr Mallinder travelled to Colombia to share information about our 'Lawyers, Conflict and Transition' project with a range of international experts at the Universidad de los Andes. She also gave a plenary at the Second Forum for the Culture of Peace and Transitional Justice: Justice (a joint conference of the Fiscalia, Vivamos Humanos, Universidad de los Andes, Organisation of Iberoamerican States, Centre for Historical Memory).

While in Colombia, Dr Mallinder met with representatives of the Commission for Peace, the National Prosecution Service and the Ministry of Justice to discuss the development of our research programme and the likely societal impact.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://lawyersconflictandtransition.org/louise-mallinder-presenting-universidad-de-los-andes-bogota-...
 
Description Post-Uprising Justice Administration: Transitional Justice and Hybrid Regimes in Turkey and the Middle East, Invited Paper, Cornell University 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Marny Requa was invited to participate in Cornell University's conference on 'Post-Uprising Justice Administration: Transitional Justice and Hybrid Regimes in Turkey and the Middle East' (10-11 October 2014). The event was hosted by the Cornell Law School's Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East. Her paper was titled, 'Lawyers, "Revolution", and Transitional Justice: the Case of Tunisia'. Drawing on our recent field research it traced the activities of lawyers in recent Tunisian history, including the unique role of lawyers in the transition, and in changing legal culture in the country. This sparked a lively discussion amongst both practitioners and policymakers from the Middle East and academics.

As a result of this talk Marny was invited to submit a paper to a special edition journal on Law and Development in the Middle East.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
URL http://lawyersconflictandtransition.org/marny-requa-present-cornell-university
 
Description TV interview 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? Yes
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact The interview was broadcast several times on the NVTV television channel and it continues to be available on their website. The interview focused on exploring emerging themes from our research project.

It has been viewed widely in Northern Ireland and has also been used as teaching material on transitional justice university courses in other countries (eg Australia).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.nvtv.co.uk/?s=mallinder
 
Description Third Annual Minerva Jerusalem International Conference on Transitional Justice - Keynote Addresses 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The focus of the conference was Learning from International Experience. Dr Mallinder took this opportunity to offer some preliminary findings from our recent field research in Cambodia. The precarious nature of the rule of law in contemporary Cambodia was assessed in terms of impunity, freedom of expression, judicial independence, judicial capacity and public confidence in the legal system. Our findings from Cambodia were then mapped onto the prevailing theoretical literature on transitional justice and cause lawyering. Dr Mallinder concluded by considering the potential that human rights holds as a catalyst for future political transformation. In a wide-ranging and thought-provoking paper Professor McEvoy then explored the complex relationship between lawyers and professionalism in situations of conflict and transition.

The conference explored the role of civil society in developing and implementing transitional justice processes, particularly in the context of ongoing conflicts. Civil society has a vital, though often under-acknowledged, role in developing transitional justice mechanisms, institutions and concepts. Over the past three decades civil society organizations have set the agenda for transitional justice policies, promoted, supported and developed mechanisms and interventions, acted as advocates and critics of local and international institutions, and helped in developing the theoretical, legal and conceptual framework of transitional justice. From local grassroots organizations like the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to international networks like the Coalition for the ICC, civil society organizations have been central in struggles for justice, truth and accountability across various contexts, while other civil society groups have been key actors in efforts of reconciliation, inter-community dialogue and conflict-transformation. One of the conference's main achievements was to facilitate local learning and discussion in relation to civil society and transitional justice in the Israeli-Palestinian context. McEvoy and Mallinders contributions were central to this.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
URL http://lawyersconflictandtransition.org/lawyering-in-limited-democracies