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This article argues that ‘civic society’ has to be understood as a ‘transactional reality’ in the Foucauldian sense, such that the task of the Civic Forum– to allow the participation of‘civic society’– entails the continual construction of its own boundaries and remit.

This article argues that transitional justice actors need to take more account of the rich, dense and pervasive forms of memory in divided societies, which can provide insight into postconflict narratives and how they impact on transitional processes, how memory entrepreneurs can advance claims and how zones of engagement between communities in conflict may function, or fail to function.

This article addresses part of this research gap, focusing on the agency of armed movements with respect to three key transitional justice themes: transition, law and truth processes in the law-based rechtsstaat .

The article assesses some methodological and ethical issues raised by a Participatory Action Research (PAR) 'truth-telling' project conducted in Northern Ireland.

This paper argues that transitional justice needs to adopt a participatory approach to achieve longer-term sustainability, shifting away from the top-down ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to allow ‘voices from below’ to be heard and heeded. It critiques dominant interpretations of key transitional justice concepts, and links them to the difficulties of post-conflict transitional justice in a range of violently divided societies.

The trials and legal hearings of paramilitary defendants, the use of judicial reviews in the prisons, and the use of law in the political arena are chosen as three interconnected sites which highlight the complex interaction between law and other forms of struggle [in NI].

Using Northern Ireland as a case study, this paper explores how lawyers responded to the challenges of entrenched discrimination, sustained political violence and an emerging peace process. Drawing upon the literature of the sociology of lawyering, it examines whether lawyers can or should be more than 'paid technicians' in such circumstances.

European Journal of Criminology, Vol. 9, Issue 5 (September 2012), pp. 527-538, 2012.
In this paper we explore, first, the role of the past and practices of commemoration in unagreed societies such as Northern Ireland in which consensus appears an unlikely proposition, the focus being on inclusion and exclusion and on the role of the contested nature of a hierarchical victimhood in commemoration.

Using a case study of the Ardoyne Commemoration Project (ACP), a community-based `truth-telling' project in the North of Ireland, this article explores the role that action research can play in researching sensitive topics in violently divided societies. The article focuses on the ethics of carrying out research that could be potentially harmful for participants and researchers.

This article critically assesses the application of the ‘transitional justice’ model of conflict transformation in Northern Ireland.

"The article aims to test the boundaries of traditional notions and understandings of citizenship and security in transitional societies through the framing of a given question: should paramilitary ex-prisoners be allowed to join the police? "

" Using the socio-legal literature on judicial performance and audience as well as transitional justice scholarship, the article argues that judges in Northern Ireland 'performed' to a number of 'imagined' audiences including Parliament, 'the public', and their judicial peers - all of which shaped their view of the judicial role."

"Popular participation and local agency, it is argued, is necessary to achieve ends identified in much transitional justice discourse, and to embed mechanisms for the creation of sustainable peace. A Northern Ireland initiative (the Ardoyne Commemoration Project) will be explored in-depth, illustrating how a bottom-up ‘truth-telling’ process can make a significant contribution to transitional justice and casting doubt on the validity of the deference to legal dominance in current policy and practice."