Truth Commissions and Sexual Violence: African and Latin American Experiences

Sexual violence committed during war or internal armed conflict is a major global challenge. It has mostly remained under-addressed during transitions from conflict and repressive regimes. Some governments have tried to address conflict-related-sexual-violence (CRSV) through truth commissions, whose job it is to document human rights violations and provide recommendations to remedy the past and prevent […]

Truth and Reconciliation in a Democratic Welfare State: The Indigenous Sami and the Kven/Norwegian Finns Minority in Norway (TRUCOM)

This project will study how Norway – a well-established democratic welfare state – attempts to settle the negative effects of long-lasting policies of assimilation and discrimination against indigenous and minority groups through the establishment of a formal truth and reconciliation commission. How and in what ways will the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) – […]

Political Fragmentation and Judicial Independence: An empirical study of Unconstitutional Actions in Paraguay 1995-2015

Congratulations to Andrea Castagnola, Anibal Perez Linan and “Desarrollo, Instituto de Capacitacion y Estudios” for the awarded a two-years research fund to study judicial voting in the Supreme Court of Paraguay. Forthcoming publication: Pérez-Liñán, A. and Castagnola, A. 2020. “¿Activismo inocuo? La Justicia Constitucional en la era democrática” in Tres décadas de democratización en Paraguay: […]

Women on the Bench: The Role of Female Judges in Fragile States

Project team: Project leader: Elin Skaar Pilar Domingo, Siri Gloppen, Ruth Rubio-Marín, Rachel Sieder, Aslak Jangård Orre, Antonio De Lauri, Torunn Wimpelmann, Ana Braconnier, Margareth Nangacovie, Marianne Tøraasen  Project reference group: Monica Kirya, Erika Rackley, Ulrike Schultz, Astri Suhrke, Georgina Waylen Funding: Norwegian Research Council, NorGlobal Since the 1970s, women have increasingly  made it to the bench. Surprisingly, the […]

The Mexican Supreme Court and the Transition to Democracy

After more than 70 years of uninterrupted authoritarian government headed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), in 2000 the country formally began the transition to democracy. This new political scenario had evidently shaken most of the foundations of the political institutions, and thus, it has become essential to study the new role of the Supreme […]

Manipulating Courts in New Democracies. Forcing Judges off the Bench in Argentina

This is a solo book manuscrit published by Routledge 2018. Abstract: When do a justice leave office? Typically, a justice with life tenure would leave office when either he dies, has health problems, reaches the age retirement, and, in those cases that justices are not appointed for life when he finishes his term. But, in […]

The Political Role of the South African Courts

This research project (2002-5), was a collaboration with the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Johannesburg) investigating the role played by courts in the linked processes of democratic consolidation and social transformation in South Africa. The ideological dominance of constitutional democracy, combined with extensive legal and judicial reforms,  increased the potential contribution of courts to the processes […]

Democratization and the Judiciary

This book project investigates the extent to which courts in Latin America and Africa have been able to say ‘no’ when the executive branch has overstepped its democratic mandate. The issues were explored in collaboration with local researchers as well as leading US and UK scholars in the field. The findings are presented in a special […]