LawTransform: Effects of Rights & Law

The project aims to consolidate the Centre on Law & Social Transformation (LawTransform) as a leading hub for scholarship on the use of law as an instrument of social change, and to advance high-quality research-based education in this field in Norway and abroad. Background and purpose: Our project brings together an interdisciplinary team of scholars […]

WAIT – Waiting for an uncertain future: the temporalities of irregular migration

The Project The WAIT-project focuses on the temporal aspects of migration and investigates how temporal structures related to irregular migration are shaped by legal regimes, cultural norms and power relationships, and how they shape subjective experiences and life projects. The WAIT-project aims to produce knowledge that meets societal challenges raised by new migration patterns adds […]

Abortion Rights Lawfare in Latin America

Abstract: The project analyses the strategic use of rights and law in battles over abortion rights in Latin America – and the various effects of this lawfare between opposing groups. Background and purpose: The growing scholarship on the interaction between judicial institutions and human rights in Latin America has mainly focused on socially progressive, rights-expanding forms of […]

Sexual and Reproductive Rights Lawfare: Global battles

  Sexual and Reproductive Rights (SRR) are controversial in most societies. Political polarization has been particularly pronounced on to abortion rights and rights of sexual minorities (LGBTIQ – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer – persons), but is also evident in issues such as the regulation of contraception, sterilization and adultery, divorce, sexual education and […]

Legitimacy and Fallibility in Child Welfare Services

The need for improved child welfare systems is urgent worldwide, because we know that the outcome for children in these systems is unsatisfactory, and the evidence for the correlations between childhood neglect and abuse and adult well-being is well-documented, e.g. in the Adverse Childhood Experiences studies. The aim of this NFR-funded project is to identify […]

Drivers of Justice: The Dynamics of Accountability Mechanisms in Transitions from Violent Conflict

Addressing human rights violations of the past through transitional justice (TJ) mechanisms is a persistent demand in many countries emerging from violent conflict, and has a central place in the evolving UN policy framework for peacebuilding. Yet mechanisms such as trials and truth commissions are sometimes aborted or deferred through compromises, often have unclear impact, […]

Juridification and Social Citizenship

Far-reaching processes of juridification are perceived to be at work in Norwegian society and globally, with expanding and more detailed legal regulation, legal regulation of new areas, conflicts and problems increasingly being framed as legal claims, authority shifting from political bodies to courts and other judicial and quasi-judicial bodies,  and a development where a judicial way of […]

Regulating Religion: Secularism and Religious Freedom in the Global Era

The contemporary moment is marked by an unprecedented “faith” in the law (Comaroff 2009). The aim of this multidisciplinary project is to provide new and critical understandings of the dilemmas involved in both protecting and enforcing “religious freedom”. What is all-too-often ignored in current invocations of this celebrated idea(l), is that in order to enforce […]

Reconceptualising Transitional Justice: The Latin American Experience

The main aim of this project is to develop a comprehensive analytical framework for comparative analysis to explore how the choice of mechanisms for handling gross human rights violations (truth commissions, trials, amnesties, and reparations) may affect peace building. A twofold strategy will be used to develop the framework: First, by collecting and systematically examining […]

Climate Change Discourse, Rights, and the Poor

Abstract:  This project aims to strengthen the competence of Norway as it increasingly becomes a key player on the relations between climate and poverty by improving the knowledge base on Norway’s bilateral relations with South Africa, contribute to a better understanding of the challenges for development aid cooperation to be responsible towards both the environment and […]