Peacemaking - What's Law Got to Do with It?

道德哲学家和国际律师一直致力于确定和发展规范从冲突向和平过渡，特别是和平谈判的“准则”。例如，有人争辩说，国际法禁止赦免国际罪行，禁止在和平谈判中接触被指控犯有此类罪行的人，并宣布某些权力分享协议为非法。反之亦然，有人建议，国际法规定某些群体必须参加和平谈判，性别平等等问题必须由和平协定加以规范，侵犯人权等问题必须在和平谈判中提出。这些假定的“准则”可能会对和平谈判产生决定性影响：如果各方受到起诉的威胁，或者如果他们无法获得权力分享安排，他们可能不想谈和谈。反过来，关注性别和人权可能有助于制定一个理想国家的蓝图，但会将人们的注意力从导致两党分歧的问题上转移开。根据实践的要求，本项目旨在从三个方面阐明国际法在和平谈判中的作用。首先，它评估文献所建议的‘规范’实际上是否等同于国际法。大多数拟议的规范都是基于道德哲学或对实践的审查。但这些都不是国际法的渊源。该项目是第一个通过解释性实证研究来审查推定规范是否得到国际法渊源支持的项目。这不仅将促进国际法的纪律，也将有助于实践中的谈判人员。其次，该项目旨在通过对目前在这本文献中使用的各种‘法律’概念进行分类，澄清现有的关于缔造和平的‘法律’的学术。这种清晰度对经验丰富的谈判者也很重要。如果缔造和平的“法律”是“模范法”意义上的“法律”，那么可以随意忽略它。然而，无视具有约束力的‘国际法’可能会导致国际责任。最后，通过对实证结果的评估，该项目将探索是什么驱使试图通过更多的国际法来管理缔造和平的行为。通过这样做，它将有助于编写一部关于国际法渊源可能发生变化的文献，并有助于研究社会中更普遍的合法化现象。它还将帮助那些制定国际法的人评估进一步合法化的建议。与项目的跨学科相匹配，每个研究目标都将以适合所涉及的问题类型的方法和方法来追求。数据收集方法将包括在国际组织总部(联合国和非洲联盟)对和平谈判中的主要行为者进行访谈，并在三个案例研究(苏丹、索马里和乌干达)中进行实地访谈。在制定这项建议的过程中征求了包括联合国和非盟在内的从业人员的意见；将通过他们在访谈、咨询小组和Nexus(学者和从业人员之间为期一周的相互知识转移)中的作用来影响实施，并将参与传播。这将保证产生最大程度的影响。总而言之，这个项目可以对关于缔造和平的法律的提案的未来进程作出根本贡献；了解法律与和平进程之间的相互作用；关于和平与冲突研究和国际法的文献；整合规范性和经验性研究并打破学术和实践者知识之间界限的方法；最重要的是，增加和平谈判的做法。该项目将得到一个定制的职业发展方案的支持，该方案由和平与冲突研究和国际法的跨学科指导、一次考察访问和几个培训班提供支持。

Moral philosophers and international lawyers have been working on identifying and developing 'norms' that govern the transition from conflict to peace generally and peace negotiations particularly. It has been argued, for instance, that international law prohibits amnesties for international crimes, forbids engaging people accused of such crimes in peace talks, and outlaws certain power-sharing agreements. Vice versa, it has been suggested that international law determines that some groups must participate in peace talks, that issues such as gender equality must be regulated by a peace agreement and that topics such as human rights violations must be raised in peace talks. These putative 'norms' can have a decisive impact on peace talks: parties may not want to talk peace if they are threatened with prosecution or if they cannot obtain a power-sharing arrangement. Focus on gender and human rights, in turn, may contribute to a blueprint for an ideal state, but turn attention away from issues that are dividing the parties. In response to demands from practice, this project aims to clarify the role of international law in peace negotiations in 3 ways. First, it assesses whether the 'norms' suggested by the literature in fact amount to international law. Most of the proposed norms are based on moral philosophy or a review of practice. But these are not sources of international law. This project is the first to examine through an interpretive empirical study whether the putative norms find support in the sources of international law. This will not only advance the discipline of international law, but also assist practising negotiators. Secondly, this project aims to clarify the existing scholarship on the 'law' of peacemaking by developing a taxonomy of the various concepts of 'law' that are currently used in this body of literature. This clarity is also important to practising negotiators. If the 'law' of peacemaking is 'law' in the sense of 'model law', then it can be ignored at will. Ignoring binding 'international law', however, can lead to international responsibility. Finally, evaluating the empirical findings, the project will explore what drives attempts to govern peacemaking by more international law. In doing so, it will contribute to a literature on possible changes in the sources of international law and to scholarship on the more general phenomenon of legalisation in society. It will also assist those who make international law in the evaluation of proposals towards further legalisation. Matching the interdisciplinarity of the project, each of the research objectives will be pursued with a methodology and method that fits the type of question involved. The data-gathering methods will include interviews with key actors in peace negotiations, at headquarters of international organisations (United Nations and African Union) and in situ in three case studies (Sudan, Somalia and Uganda). Practitioners, including from the UN and AU, have been consulted in the development of this proposal; will influence the implementation through their role in interviews, the Advisory Group and the Nexus (a week-long mutual knowledge transfer between academics and practitioners) and will be involved in the dissemination. This will guarantee the highest degree of impact. In sum, this project can make a fundamental contribution to the future course of proposals on a law of peacemaking; understanding of the interaction between law and peace processes; the literatures on peace and conflict studies and international law; methodologies that integrate normative and empirical research and break boundaries between scholarly and practitioners' knowledge; and, most fundamentally, the increasing practice of peace negotiations.The project will be supported by a bespoke career development programme with cross-disciplinary mentoring from peace and conflict studies and international law, a study visit and several training courses.