Escaping Justice #

Impunity for state crimes in the age of accountability #

Status: In production with Cambridge University Press Expected Publication: Summer 2025

Now more than ever the international community is playing a role in pressing governments to hold their own to account. Movements in support of human rights have helped to spur global pressure for individual accountability for the violations of those rights, a ‘justice cascade’. Despite pressure to adhere to global norms of accountability, governments continue to benefit from impunity for their crimes and have an incentive to structure institutions to help them escape justice.

How does this outcome persist?

Escaping Justice is a study of the process through which accountability for state crimes is pursued or denied based on extensive fieldwork in Rwanda, Uganda, and Northern Ireland. Escaping Justice presents a theory of strategic adaptation in which governments circumvent the risks of accountability by adapting international norms. Research in each of the three country cases reveals unique strategies of adaptation: coercion, containment, and concession. I use evidence from these cases to trace the domestic political context driven each strategy and offer insight into the transitional justice structure most likely to emerge.

Additional Publications #

“Rebel Governance in the Age of Climate Change” (2024) Available as Open Access publication. Learn more about this collaborative research project →

Research Data #

Co-creator of the Post-Conflict Justice (PCJ) and During-Conflict Justice (DCJ) Datasets - comprehensive data on justice mechanisms during and after armed conflict.