Ulster University - Coleraine

Overview

The Transitional Justice Institute (TJI) has rapidly become internationally recognised, since its inception in 2003, as a leading centre in developing the field of transitional justice – broadly, the study of law in societies emerging from authoritarian rule or conflict. The TJI supports research in transitional justice and more broadly in human rights, gender and transition, public international law and conflict resolution. TJI is led by Director Professor Rory O'Connell.

In REF 2014, Law at Ulster is ranked 4th in the UK overall. It is ranked 1st for impact with 100% of our impact rated as world leading. TJI is a law-led multidisciplinary research centre focusing on transitional justice, human rights, international law and peace and conflict.

While rooted within law, TJI actively engages in and supports multidisciplinary research. As well as legal scholars, the Institute is home to scholars with backgrounds in fields of gender studies, peace and conflict studies and political science; we work closely with colleagues in INCORE.

TJI has an active, enthusiastic and strongly multinational group of funded doctoral researchers working on topics such as memory, victim identity, and reparations in Northern Ireland; masculinities and gendered violence; civil society involvement, in transition and peacebuilding; peacebuilding prospects in the Middle East; Colombian conflict, and transitional dynamics, and equality and institutional reforms in transitions.

Each year, a limited number of competitive funded PhD scholarships are available for researchers. The Law School also encourages applications from self-funded applicants or those funded from other sources, to start in October or, possibly, at other times of year. UK PhD programmes are normally three-year, research intensive projects in which the relationship with a small team of supervisors is key.

All prospective applicants are therefore encouraged to contact a staff member with relevant expertise in the area of the proposed course of research for advice on honing the academic content of their application. For general enquiries please contact the Research Director for Law Prof Rory O'Connell or one of our PhD coordinators, Prof Cath Collins, Dr Thomas Hansen.

We welcome interdisciplinary research proposals and may appoint supervisors from outside the law unit of assessment.

Summary

TJI has placed research emanating from Northern Ireland at the forefront of both local and global academic, legal and policy debates.

The innovative research produced by TJI researchers has received funding from Atlantic Philanthropies, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Foundation, the Nuffield Foundation, the Royal Irish Academy, and the UK Socio-Legal Studies Association.

TJI researchers are involved in a range of collaborative research projects with institutions in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North America and Latin America, and serve on the editorial boards of several international scholarly journals.

In addition to their scholarly work, TJI researchers actively engage with policymakers and civil society, both within Northern Ireland and internationally.

TJI researchers work with the American Society of International Law, the Open Society Foundation, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Women, Association of Human Rights Institute, as well as numerous Northern Ireland based organisations.

TJI espouses an 'active research' model, wherein engagement with institutions, policy-makers and communities (internationally and locally) generates research, and research generates engagement and impact.

For more details on these see:

www.ulster.ac.uk/tji

Social media: follow @TJI_ on twitter or like on Facebook.

Examples of proposals in the area of Transitional Justice would include:

Peacebuilding, peace processes and political; Truth, truth recovery and truth commissions; Enforced disappearances; Justice, accountability and amnesty; Reparations, victims and survivors; Guarantees of non-repetition, including institutional reform, transformative justice, socioeconomic rights, land reform; Memory and memorialisation; Transitional justice in democratic states ('intra-democratic' transitions) and in ongoing conflicts; Gender and transitional justice, including sexual violence, domestic violence, masculinities; Transitional justice in Northern Ireland; Regional perspectives on transitional justice including African and Latin American perspectives.

Human rights and international law topics would include:

Gender and human rights; Domestic protection of human rights through Bills of Rights, human rights action plans, and national human rights institutions; Philosophy and history of Human Rights, including relationship of human rights to democracy and participation, postcolonial theory; Minority and vulnerable groups; Equality and socio-economic rights; International Human Rights Law; Regional human rights systems (Africa, Latin America, Europe); human rights and development; International Humanitarian Law, including peacekeeping; human rights in situations of armed conflict; International Criminal Justice in international, hybrid and/or national tribunals, and Feminist analysis of international law.