Colm Campbell

Colm is one of the founding directors of the TJI, currently serving as Associate Director. He is also Professor of Law, in the School of Law at UU. In recent years he has held Senior Research Fellowships from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, and was elected Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. Prior to joining UU (2000), he served as Professor of law at the National University of Ireland, Galway (January 1997 – December 1999), and as Director of the Human Rights Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. He has also taught at the University of Pisa on a visiting basis. Professor Campbell held the Civil Liberties Research Studentship at QUB, completing his doctorate in 1989. He holds a BCL degree from the National University of Ireland (UCD), and is qualified as a solicitor in Ireland. He combines a strong commitment to research in the field of human rights and international humanitarian law with a keen interest in human rights advocacy, locally and globally. A former chairperson of CAJ (the Northern Ireland affiliate of the ICJ), he also co-authored one of the two human rights reports produced for the Irish Government’s Forum for Peace and Reconciliation.

Research Interests

Colm’s research is focused on two main projects:

• The Paradox of Transitions in a Liberal Democratic State
  
  Dominant discourses in the field of ‘transitional justice’ focus on the authoritarian state in transition to democracy. The Northern Ireland transition fits uneasily with this paradigm because the UK is already, and has long been seen as, a leading western democracy, with a proclaimed commitment to the ‘rule of law’; thus in form at least, the Northern Ireland state could be considered ‘liberal –democratic’ both during and after the conflict. On the other hand, Northern Ireland also fits uneasily with models of constitutional ‘democratic renewal’, firstly because the region has had to deal with the legacy of an ‘armed conflict’ of sorts, secondly because historically, a significant portion of the populations withheld its consent from the state (thus the ‘governing by consent’ test of a liberal democracy was not met), and thirdly because adherence to the ‘rule of law’ in Northern Ireland has historically been partial and contingent, to an extent rarely seen in democratic states. This project, originally funded by the Leverhulme Trust, uses the Northern Ireland example to explore the paradox of a liberal-democratic state in transition, focusing on law’s role in grappling with the problems of such a state in ‘seeing’ its past, and in coping with the need for institutional transformation. A number of co-authored publications have already resulted. (see ‘Publications’)
  
• Making ‘Wars on Terror’? Global Lessons from Northern Ireland
  
  The global ‘war on terror’ has focused renewed attention on the question of the relationship between violence, terrorism, law and repression. This project uses the example of the Northern Ireland conflict to explore these relationships in a violently conflicted state with a formal (if in practice, contingent) commitment to the rule of law. Doing so explores the specifics of repression in the law-based state.
  Governmental discourse casts the use of emergency powers in Northern Ireland in terms of the ‘response of the liberal democratic state to terrorism’. This ignores the extent to which the use of such powers may have been not simply adjectival to the conflict; it may have been partly constructive of it, contributing to the mobilisation of the state’s violent challengers. This project explores law’s role in this ‘repression – mobilization’ nexus , drawing on interview data with formerly violent political actors, and on court surveys over several decades. The aim is both to learn the lessons of the Northern Ireland conflict, and to apply them to the ‘war on terror’, taking account both of similarities and differences in the Northern Ireland and broader ‘wars’.

 

Books

Emergency Law in Ireland, 1918-1925. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994

The Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Peace and Reconciliation in Ireland  Dublin: Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, 1996 (co-editor with K Boyle and T Hadden).

Nationalism and Minorities in the Middle East: Identities and Rights IB Tauris, 1996 (co-editor with K Schulze and M Stokes).

Transitional Justice- Northern Ireland and Beyond Special Edition of Fordham International Law Journal, 2003 (co-editor with F Ní Aoláin).

 

Peer Reviewed Articles

"Making War on Terror? Global Lessons from Northern Ireland. "69(6) Modern Law Review (2006): 935-957 (co-author with I Connolly)

‘Wars on Terror' and Vicarious Hegemons.' 54 International and Comparative Law Quarterly (2005): 321

‘The Paradox of Transition in Conflicted Democracies.' 27 Human Rights Quarterly (2005): 172. (co-author with F Ní Aoláin).

"Justice Discourses in Transition." 13 Social and Legal Studies. (2004): 306-28 (co-author with C Bell and F Ní Aoláin)

"A Model for the 'War against Terrorism'? Military Intervention and the 1970 Falls Curfew." 30 Journal of Law and Society (2003): 341. (co-author with I Connolly).

‘Local Meets Global: Transitional Justice in Northern Ireland.' 26(4) Fordham International Law Journal (2003) (co-author): 871.

‘The Frontiers of Legal Analysis: Re-Framing the Transition in Northern Ireland.' 66 Modern Law Review (2003): 317-45. (co-author with F Ní Aoláin & C Harvey).

‘Peace and the Laws of War: The Role of International Humanitarian Law in the Post-Conflict Environment.' 82 International Review of the Red Cross (2000): 627-52.

“The Criminal Justice (United Nations Convention Against Torture) Act 2000 and the Criminal Justice (Safety of United Nations Workers) Act 2000' 3 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (2000):529 (co-author with R Murphy)

‘Two Steps Backwards: The Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998.' Criminal Law Review (1999): 941-59.

“Ireland: Commentary on The Geneva Conventions (Amendment) Act 1998” 2 Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (Asser Institute Correspondent’s Report) (1999): 380 – 383 (co-author with R Murphy).

“The International War Crimes Tribunals Act, 1998” Irish Current Law Statutes Annotated (1998): 40-01 – 40-40. (co-author with R Murphy).

“Ireland: Chemicals Weapons Act 1997” 1 Netherlands Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law (correspondent’s reports): 460 – 467 (co-author with R Murphy).

“The Geneva Conventions (Amendment) Act 1998” Irish Current Law Statutes Annotated R. 64 (1998):35-01 - 35-58. (co-author with R Murphy).

“Extradition to Northern Ireland: Prospects and Problems” 52 Modern Law Review (1989):585

“Irish Extradition Developments” 39 Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly (1988): 191.

 

Book Chapters/Other Articles

“Northern Ireland: Violent Conflict and the Resilience of International Law.” In Counter Terror and Human Rights: International Perspectives on National Insecurity, edited by A Brysk and G Shafir, University of California Press, 2007 (forthcoming).

"A Useful Model? Emergency and Anti-Terrorist Powers in Northern Ireland." In The New Islamic Terrorism, edited by A Bradanini: United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), 2003. (co-author with I Connolly).

“Practice to Theory, States of Emergency and Human Rights Protection in Asia.” In Human Rights and Asian Values: Contesting National Identities and Cultural Representations in Asia, edited by M Jacobsen. Curzon Press in association with the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (2000): 249 – 279 (co-author with A McDonald).

"Transitional Justice, International Law and the Power of the Hegemon: Collision or Elision." In Human Rights, Democracy and Transition, edited by John Morrison, Kieran McEvoy and G Anthony: Oxford University Press, 2006. (co-author with C Bell and F Ní Aoláin)

‘A Problematic Peace: The Israeli-Palestinian Process and International Humanitarian Law.' In Nationalism and Minorities in the Middle East: Identities and Rights, edited by C Campbell, K Schulze and M Stokes: IB Taurus, 1996.

“Sources of International Human Rights standards and Enforcement Mandates: International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law and United Nations Resolutions.” In International Human Rights Enforcement: the Case of the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the Transition Period, Ramallah: Centre for International Human Rights Law Enforcement, 1996.

‘The Protection of Human Rights in the Context of Peace and Reconciliation in Ireland.'  Forum for Peace and Reconciliation (Dublin 1996) (co-author with K Boyle and T Hadden).

“Extradition.” In The Anglo-Irish Agreement, Commentary Text and Official Overview edited by T Hadden and K Boyle, Edwin Higel Ltd and Sweet & Maxwell, 1989.

“Emergency Law in Northern  Ireland: the Context.”  In Justice Under Fire edited by A Jennings, Pluto Press, 1st edition 1988, 2nd edition 1990 (co-author with T Hadden and K Boyle).

 

Reports

“The Effective Protection of Human Rights: An Introductory Handbook.” Centre for International and Comparative Human Rights Law, QUB, Occasional Paper Series No. 6, (1999) (co-author with T Hadden and K Boyle).

“The Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998.” Twenty-Fourth Report of the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, London: HMSO, 1999:53 – 75

“The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.” In Women’s Rights as Human Rights: A Practical Guide, Centre for International and Comparative Human Rights Law QUB, Occasional Paper No. 2, 1997

“The Draft Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 1996: Briefing Paper for the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights.” In twenty-second Report of the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, London: HMSO 1997: 173 – 183.

“Northern Ireland Office Discussion Paper on Committal Proceedings in Northern Ireland.” In  Twenty-first Report of Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, London: HMSO, 1996: 181 – 189

“Frameworks for Human Rights Monitoring in the Israeli-Occupied Territories.” In Towards a Strategy for the Enforcement of Human Rights in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank and Gaza, The Labour Middle East Council and the Conservative Middle East Council, 1992

“Human Rights Work in Situations of Armed Conflict and Political Violence: Case Study No. 2, Northern Ireland.” Santiago, Chile: Signeros Consultores, 1992 (co-author with K Boyle).

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