TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE INSTITUTE - Research - University of Ulster

Peace agreements frequently include legal and other institutional reforms which aim to address these conflicts. However,peace agreements typically set out broad frameworks that leave institutional change to the implementation phase.This means that institutional reform tends to occur outside of formal negotiating processes and on a piecemeal basis.Experience in Northern Ireland and elsewhere has demonstrated that when this occurs unresolved and outstandingissues from the negotiation process become intertwined in the process of institutional reform. Institutional reformsoften address, to different degrees:• Overarching justiciable rights (e.g. through bills of rights) including civil, political, social, economic and culturalrights (and/or policy alternatives)• Constitutional or human rights courts and issues of judicial independence• National human rights enforcement institutions (e.g. human rights commissions)• Rights-based reform of the criminal justice system• Rights-based reform of policingAims of TJI research in this area• Consider ‘best practice’ with regard to institutions using international comparative experience• Examine institutional transformation in Northern Ireland in comparative context• Provide specific policy oriented research relevant to institutional development in Northern IrelandIndicative projects• The legal regulation of public protest (Michael Hamilton)• National human rights institutions in transitions (Anne Smith)• Policing and transition (Mary O’Rawe)• Legal remedies in the African human rights system (Gina Bekker)• Land rights in agreements between states and indigenous peoples (Jérémie Gilbert)• Equality and socio-economic rights: theoretical and comparative analyses (Anne Smith, Thomas Bundschuh)• Women and the implementation of the Good Friday / Belfast AgreementIndicative PublicationsGilbert, J. Indigenous Peoples’ Land Rights under International Law: From Victims to Actors (Transnational Publishers-Brill, 2006).Gilbert, J. “Nomadic Territories: A Human Rights Approach to Nomadic Peoples’ Land Rights” 4 Human Rights LawReview (2007): 4Gilbert, J. “Historical Indigenous Peoples’ Land Claims: A Comparative and International Approach to the CommonLaw Doctrine on Indigenous Title” 56 (3) International and Comparative Law Quarterly (2007) 538-611Gilbert, J. “Still No Place to Go: Nomadic Peoples’ Territorial Rights in Europe.” 4 European Yearbook on MinorityIssues (2006): 141-59.Gilbert, J. “Justice Not Revenge: The International Criminal Court and the ‘Grounds to Exclude Criminal Responsibility’:Defences or Negation of Criminality?” 10 The International Journal of Human Rights (2006).Hamilton, M. “Freedom of Assembly, Consequential Harms and the Rule of Law: Liberty Limiting Principles in theContext of Transition.” 27(1) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 75 (2007).Hamilton, M. “Deepening Democracy? Dispute System Design and the Mediation of Contested Parades in NorthernIreland.” 22(1)Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution (2006) (co-author with D Bryan).12