Rethinking Transitional Justice: What Does It Mean Today?

To mark its 10th Anniversary, OTJR is organizing a one-day workshop to engage PhD candidates, early-career researchers and practitioners working on transitional justice in guided discussions about their current work. The workshop will provide an opportunity for networking and exchanging ideas with other postgraduates and practitioners with similar research interests. OTJR encourages applications from a variety of disciplines, including - but not limited to - law, criminology, socio-legal studies, development, political theory, history, anthropology.

OTJR is delighted to welcome Pablo de Greiff, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, as keynote speaker of the event. Alongside him, other participants will include renowned scholars and former members of OTJR such as Phil Clark, Nicola Palmer, Miles Jackson, and many more.

The workshop aims to create a discussion on the meaning of transitional justice today and the new challenges and perspectives of transitional justice practice and research. Each participant will be given an opportunity to reflect on and discuss how his or her own research relates to these broader questions, in the format of a guided discussion with the assistance of senior academics acting as
facilitators. Various roundtable discussions will be structured around the following thematic areas:

1. Giving meaning to ‘justice’ in transitional justice
Potential topics can include:
• International vs regional vs local justice mechanisms;
• The role of international law in shaping the concept of justice;
• Judicial, extra-judicial, and quasi-judicial mechanisms;
• Truth-seeking mechanisms: a unique concept?;
• Which actors determine what ‘justice’ means?;
• Victims’ participation in the design and implementation of transitional
justice measures.

2. ‘Transition’ ... from where to where?
Potential topics can include:
• Is peace a priority over other considerations?;
• Relationship between transitional justice and development;
• Transitional Justice and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
• Guarantees of non-recurrence as part of a comprehensive transitional
justice strategy;
• Legitimacy of transitional justice measures.

3. Methodology and ethics in transitional justice research
Potential topics can include:
• Dialogue between legal, theoretical, empirical qualitative and
quantitative research;
• Ethical dilemmas: engaging with human suffering;
• Engagement between TJ researchers and practitioners.

Application process

If you would like to apply, please send an application with your CV and a 300-word abstract of your research. In your application, please specify the thematic area which you are interested in, indicating which particular topics of those listed (or other falling under the broader overarching themes) are relevant to your research. All applications must be sent to OTJR’s Convenor Daniel Franchini at daniel.franchini@law.ox.ac.uk by Sunday 23 April 2017. This event will take place at the University of Oxford with no charge. However,
there are no travel bursaries available for participants. If you have any questions, please contact the organisers:
Daniel Franchini: daniel.franchini@law.ox.ac.uk
Elena Butti: elena.butti@law.ox.ac.uk
Diana Dajer: diana.dajer@law.ox.ac.uk