Professor Louise Mallinder will discuss her current book project that examines whether a norm has evolved in international law to prohibit the use of amnesties for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations.

The book responds to conflicting views on the legality of amnesties expressed by international judges. It asks: Is there an international norm prohibiting amnesties for international crimes and serious human rights violations? If so, is it an emerging norm, or has it become a crystallized legal norm with binding effects? And what are the contents of this norm? Does it forbid the use of any form of amnesty for serious violations irrespective of context, or does it have exceptions that allow for amnesty provided certain conditions are met?  

The salience of these questions from a legal perspective is evident if we consider that in 2004, the Special Court of Sierra Leone proclaimed that there was a ‘crystallizing international norm’ to prohibit states from enacting amnesties for serious crimes, such as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. This language suggests the Court’s perception that the international law on amnesties was changing and indicates the Court’s preferred outcome. However, in 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court argued that ‘international law is still in the developmental stage on the question of acceptability of amnesties,’ suggesting that the Special Court of Sierra Leone’s anticipated future for amnesties has not yet definitively come to pass.

In this lecture, Professor Mallinder will probe the ongoing uncertainty about the status of amnesties. She will explore how modern approaches to international law, which downplay the role of states in creating international law, have predominated in judgments and expert analysis that asserts the norm prohibiting amnesties. She will use the innovative Amnesties, Conflict, and Peace Agreement database together with other original data analysis, to interrogate whether traditional methods of interpreting international law, which place greater weight on state practice, give us different answers on the legal status of amnesties. This will include considering how states have promoted and complied with the anti-amnesty prohibition and censured breaches of this norm by other states.

Louise Mallinder is a Professor of Law at Queen’s University Belfast and the Deputy Director of the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice. Her research focuses on the intersections of law and peace, focusing on themes such as transitional justice, human rights, international law, and amnesty laws. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Higher Education Academy. In addition, she is a member of the Institute for Integrated Transitions Law and Peace Practice Group and the Executive Board of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, a human rights organization based in Northern Ireland. Louise Mallinder is Pozen Visiting Professor at the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights during Spring 2024.

This event is sponsored by the University of Chicago Law School's International Programs and International Law Society, and the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights. For accommodations, please contact pozenhumanrights@uchicago.edu.

Lunch will be provided. Please submit dietary requests eight business days prior to the program to Aican Nguyen at aican@uchicago.edu. Although we will try to accommodate dietary needs, it is not guaranteed.