Localising International Law: Examining the Outreach Strategies of the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: Geography
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Alexander Jeffrey (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Coe N
(2014)
The Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in Dayton Bosnia
in Political Geography
Jakala M
(2017)
Communicating law, building peace: the pedagogy of public outreach from war crimes courts
in Space and Polity
Jeffrey
(2019)
The Edge of Law: Legal Geographies of a War Crimes Court
Jeffrey A
(2014)
The Hybrid Legal Geographies of a War Crimes Court
in Annals of the Association of American Geographers
Jeffrey A
(2015)
Using courts to build states: The competing spaces of citizenship in transitional justice programmes
in Political Geography
Jeffrey A
(2019)
The Edge of Law - Legal Geographies of a War Crimes Court
Jeffrey A
(2015)
Understanding legitimacy: Perspectives from anomalous geopolitical spaces
in Geoforum
Jeffrey A
(2012)
Beyond trial justice in the former Yugoslavia
in The Geographical Journal
| Description | (1) Hybrid Law: incorporating concepts of spatial hybridity in a study of transitional justice has theoretical and methodological implications. In theoretical terms, it emphasizes the entanglement of legal deliberation in specific material and symbolic landscapes. In methodological terms it encourages qualitative engagement with the materiality of trials, illuminating the forms of comportment and categorization through which law establishes its legitimacy. Outputs: papers in Annals of the AAG (in press) and The Geographical Journal. Presentations at in Sheffield, Tuzla and Los Angeles. The PI received Stanley D. Brunn Award from the Political Geography Speciality Group of the Association of American Geographers for contributions to work on the political geographies of international law. (2) Transitional citizenship: the project found that the operation of the CBiH illuminated a series of divergent understandings of citizenship. While the court seeks to convey a concept of state-based citizenship, this is only achieved through the enrolment of civil society actors operating across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) territory. Rather than heralding a series of 'grassroots' alternatives to official scripts, these agents often saw the value of a universal understanding of justice structured around state-based rights. Outputs: paper under review at Political Geography ("Using courts to build states"), a book chapter in an international edited collection on transitional justice and civil society. Presentations in New York and Cambridge. (3) Law and state building: the project has illuminated the limits to using courts to build states, emphasizing the ways in which the operation of law imposes social categories that can act as a barrier to the consolidation of new political communities. Outputs: book chapters in The Improvised State monograph, a chapter in 'weak states in Eurasia' edited collection and presentations in Exeter, Belfast and Switzerland. |
| Exploitation Route | The Localising International Law research project has had a series of impacts on the relationship between legal institutions and victim communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These will be taken forward in a number of ways: First, the outputs of the project have changed the policy of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) towards civil society organisations. In January 2012, and as a direct result of participation in the workshop, the Court opened direct dialogues with victims associations and human rights NGOs in order to improve public accessibility to war crimes trials. In a letter to the PI the President of the Court of BiH, Justice Meddžida Kreso, described how the activities of the project have "significantly contribute[d] to the efforts made by the Court to be proactive". Secondly, the research has transformed the culture of debate surrounding transitional justice amongst international organisations in Bosnia. A participant in the Sarajevo workshop from the ICTY remarked "the workshop offered a clear message that victims of crime have to come back to the centre of social attention [] because in the current social reality perpetrators enjoy many more benefits offered by the judicial system than the victims." A representative of the US Department of Justice saw the research project and the workshop as a crucial intervention in debates concerning transitional justice in Bosnia: "the attendees were true stakeholders; to hear about their specific experiences and views was extremely useful." The research findings will be taken forward by these policy actors to refine the approach towards civil society organisations within transitional justice programmes. Thirdly, through the participatory research strategy and the dissemination activities, civil society actors have developed a new strategy of working with the Court. In particular, organisations have begun to directly lobby the Court for better access and information. As a result of these processes (in addition to wider campaigns), in 2014 the Court altered its approach to data protection and brought to an end of redacting indictments and verdicts to allow greater transparency concerning trial outcomes. Fourthly, the research will be taken forward by social scientists interested in the mechanisms through which courts (both conventional domestic courts and institutions of transitional justice) communicate their aims and activities. The findings of the project point to the significance of understanding law as a form of socially-embedded practice, where the sites and characteristics of its performance play an important role in public perceptions of justice. This contributes to critical legal scholarship that has sought to challenge a disembodied and instrumental account of law. |
| Sectors | Education Government Democracy and Justice Security and Diplomacy |
| URL | http://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/lilbosnia/ |
| Description | The Localising International Law research project has had a series of emerging impacts on the relationship between legal institutions and victim communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereafter Bosnia). This research has come at a crucial time for the transitional justice process in Bosnia. The Court of Bosnia in Sarajevo, established in 2006, has been granted increasing responsibility for war crimes trials, creating the opportunity for renewed societal debate concerning the nature of justice after the 1992-5 war. But at the same time, political attacks on the court from domestic politicians have grown, while victims' associations are turning away from the legal process in frustration at a perceived lack of transparency. In this context the research has explored how the Court has sought to build trust amongst Bosnian communities through public outreach strategies, often fostering links with civil society organisations. Over the course of the fieldwork we have enrolled civil society organisations as participants in research design, culminating in a workshop in central Sarajevo co-organised with the NGO Action Against Impunity (TRIAL). This event brought together Court officials, members of the international community, NGOs and victim associations to debate new approaches to communicating law. The research has led to a series of far-reaching impacts: the behaviour of NGOs and victims associations has changed as they have adopted new methods for corresponding with the Court, the Court has transformed how it engages civil society organisations and a series of international agencies have begun to engage in processes of transitional justice in Bosnia. In the UK context, my research has had various impacts. I used an ESRC Impact Acceleration Award to explore the relationship between the findings in the Bosnian context and current UK policy towards reform of the court estate (see funding applications for details). The first two (of three) workshops involved judges, NGOs, members of the Ministry of Justice and academics deliberating the future of the UK court estate. The third workshop was held inside Wandsworth Prison and brought twenty external delegates to discuss issues of concerning court space and the communication of law with inmates. Finally, the research has been drawn upon by the Ministry of Defence 77 Brigade to shape their interventions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice,Security and Diplomacy |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Changing public outreach policy of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | Over the course of the fieldwork the project enrolled civil society organisations as participants in research design, culminating in a workshop in central Sarajevo co-organised with the NGO Action Against Impunity (TRIAL). This event brought together Court officials, members of the international community, NGOs and victim associations to debate new approaches to communicating law. The research has led to a series of far-reaching impacts: in particular the Court has transformed how it engages civil society organisations by instituting regular discussion fora with such groups within the Court building. This has the benefit -- stressed at the workshop -- of demystifying the Court space and allowing victims' associations the chance to ask specific questions regarding the legal process. |
| Description | ESRC Impact Acceleration Award |
| Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | RG76702, LCAG/317 |
| Organisation | Economic and Social Research Council |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2016 |
| End | 02/2017 |
| Description | European Research Council Advanced Researcher Award (as Co-Applicant) |
| Amount | € 2,500,000 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | ERC 295392 |
| Organisation | European Research Council (ERC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Belgium |
| Start | 06/2012 |
| End | 06/2017 |
| Description | Judicial proximity: where should displaced Rohingya populations seek justice? |
| Amount | £19,501 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Cambridge |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2021 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | Cultivating Legal Legitimacy after War: What Role for Civil Society? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Paper presented at the Producing Legitimacy Workshop, University of Cambridge 22nd-23rd April 2013. Increased interest in the project outputs amongst the global audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Department Seminar University College London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Entitled 'The Geopolitics of Transitional Justice', this was a Human Geography seminar to the Geography Department at the University College London. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| Description | Improvement of courts' relation with victims needed |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Article in the Balkan Transitional Justice newsletter that discusses the localising international Law workshop held in Sarajevo in September 2012. Led to increased coverage of the project and participation in the Sarajevo workshop. This was part of a group of activities that have led to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina changing the way that it handles public outreach, one of the key impacts of this project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/improvement-of-courts-relation-to-victims-needed |
| Description | NGOs in post-conflict environments |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | A lecture and discussion by Dr Alex Jeffrey hosted by the United World College in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 24 November 2011. Increased interest amongst members of the United World College in Mostar towards issues of transitional justice, as evidenced by correspondence following the talk. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://issuu.com/hepok/docs/newsletter_-_november_2011 |
| Description | Placing the court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in transitional justice strategies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research and patient groups |
| Results and Impact | A round table discussion on the history and process of transitional justice in the former Yugoslavia, hosted at the University of Tuzla, 11 July 2012. University of Tuzla remarked on the increase in engagement on issues of transitional justice within the student body following the round table. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Political Geography Research Seminar University of Zurich |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Entitled 'Between cohesion and justice? What war crimes trials tell us about the political geography of state building', this was a departmental seminar at the University of Zurich, engaging with a range of academic and postgraduate students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://www.geo.uzh.ch/fileadmin/files/content/abteilungen/polit/events/15HS_Polit_Seminar.pdf |
| Description | Producing Legitimacy: Governance Against the Odds |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Two-day workshop organised as part of the dissemination from the Localising International Law project, in collaboration with Dr. Fiona McConnell (Oxford) and Dr. Alice Wilson (Cambridge). Around 30 academic and around five graduate students attended the workshop from across the globe and we debated how statehood is asserted in precarious and unrecognised situations. It sparked much debate. We are in the latter stages of publishing a special issue of the international journal Geoforum. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Why the Court of BiH should focus on its outreach |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | An article on the Balkan investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) website Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Justice Report |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.bim.ba/en/321/10/35077/ |