Informed by the relevant theoretical frameworks above, the project will address a range of research questions including:
- How do lawyers respond to periods of extreme political violence and state repression?
- How important are lawyers in wide-scale efforts at popular mobilisation in response to such activities?
- What is the particular role of legal collectives (e.g. bar councils, law societies) in broader public debates and vis-a-vis cause lawyers?
- What is the particular contribution of lawyers in terms of professional and popular understandings of the ‘rule of law’ at different stages of a conflict and transition?
- What is the nature of the intersection between litigation strategies and events outside the courts in conflicted and transitional societies?
- To what extent does the attitude of local lawyers towards international law and international legal actors influence legal understandings of the conflict and transition, the local political context and international understandings of the conflict and transition?
- How significant is the issue of gender in determining the role of lawyers?
- How relevant are lawyers in periods where political or military leaders appear more willing to negotiate and (if such negotiations succeed) in the design and implementation of political agreements?
- If some level of political stability is established, how do lawyers contribute technically, politically and socially to broader efforts to ‘deal with the past’?