Lauren Dempster – författare

This book rethinks the boundaries of transitional justice, urging scholars and practitioners to confront the often-overlooked nexus between mass violence and ecological harm.

Through an in-depth analysis of the field’s limitations – such as its anthropocentric legalism, neocolonial practices, and alignment with neoliberalism – the book critiques the historical marginalisation of Nature in transitional justice discourse and practice. It argues that ignoring environmental harm not only undermines the possibility of holistic justice but also perpetuates structural violence and inequality. In response, the book sketches a ‘greener’ transitional justice, integrating principles from environmental justice, Indigenous knowledge systems, and ecocentric perspectives. It explores the possibilities of recognising Nature as a victim of mass violence, adapting existing mechanisms to incorporate environmental harm, and fostering transformative approaches premised on the interdependence of human and ecological well-being.

This book is written for students, researchers, and practitioners of transitional justice and fields related to conflict transformation, peacebuilding, environmental protection, and development.

This book rethinks the boundaries of transitional justice, urging scholars and practitioners to confront the often-overlooked nexus between mass violence and ecological harm.

Through an in-depth analysis of the field’s limitations – such as its anthropocentric legalism, neocolonial practices, and alignment with neoliberalism – the book critiques the historical marginalisation of Nature in transitional justice discourse and practice. It argues that ignoring environmental harm not only undermines the possibility of holistic justice but also perpetuates structural violence and inequality. In response, the book sketches a ‘greener’ transitional justice, integrating principles from environmental justice, Indigenous knowledge systems, and ecocentric perspectives. It explores the possibilities of recognising Nature as a victim of mass violence, adapting existing mechanisms to incorporate environmental harm, and fostering transformative approaches premised on the interdependence of human and ecological well-being.

This book is written for students, researchers, and practitioners of transitional justice and fields related to conflict transformation, peacebuilding, environmental protection, and development.

This book employs a transitional justice lens to address the ‘disappearances’ that occurred during the Northern Ireland conflict – or ‘Troubles’ – and the post-conflict response to these ‘disappearances.’ Despite an extensive literature around ‘dealing with the past’ in Northern Ireland, as well as a substantial body of scholarship on ‘disappearances’ in other national contexts, there has been little scholarly scrutiny of ‘disappearances’ in post-conflict Northern Ireland. Although the Good Friday Agreement brought relative peace to Northern Ireland, no provision was made for the establishment of some form of overarching truth and reconciliation commission aimed at comprehensively addressing the legacy of violence. Nevertheless, a mechanism to recover the remains of the ‘disappeared’ – the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) – was established, and has in fact proven to be quite effective. As a result, the reactions of key constituencies to the ‘disappearances’ can be used as a prism through which to comprehensively explore issues of relevance to transitional justice scholars and practitioners.

Pursuing an interdisciplinary approach, and based on extensive empirical research, this book provides a multifaceted exploration of the responses of these constituencies to the practice of ‘disappearing.’ It engages with transitional justice themes including silence, memory, truth, acknowledgement, and apology. Key issues examined include the mobilisation efforts of families of the ‘disappeared,’ efforts by a (former) non-state armed group to address its legacy of violence, the utility of a limited immunity mechanism to incentivise information provision, and the interplay between silence and memory in the shaping of a collective, societal understanding of the ‘disappeared.’