It is our great pleasure today to introduce Louise Mallinder as an IntLawGrrls contributor. Louise is a Professor of Human Rights and International Law at the Transitional Justice Institute (TJI). She is also TJI’s ‘Dealing with the Past’ research coordinator.

Within her broad interests in international human rights law, international criminal law and law and politics in political transitions, Louise has a particular research interest and expertise in amnesty laws, the role of lawyers as transitional actors, and socio-legal research methods related to transitional justice. She has conducted fieldwork in numerous locations including Northern Ireland, Cambodia, Chile, South Africa, Israel, Palestine, Tunisia, Argentina, Uruguay, Uganda and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Her research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Nuffield Foundation and the Socio-Legal Studies Association. In addition, Louise’s monograph was awarded the 2009 Hart SLSA Early Career Award and was jointly awarded the 2009 British Society of Criminology Book Prize.

Louise is also a member of the AHRC and ESRC Peer-Review Colleges, the Royal Irish Academy Ethical, Political, Legal and Philosophical Studies Committee and she co-chairs the American Society of International Law Transitional Justice and Rule of Law Interest Group. She is also a member of the IFIT Law and Peace Practice Group and Chair of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, a human rights NGO based in Belfast.

Her first post will introduce her and her team’s preliminary findings from their comparative project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Heartfelt welcome!