The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has announced that University Lecturer in Law Dr Sarah Nouwen is among the winners of a Future Research Leaders grant. The award is for Nouwen's research project "Peacemaking: What's Law Got to Do With It?". This demand-driven project will conduct the interpretive empirical research that is necessary for understanding whether recurring practices in peace negotiations are inspired by a conviction that these practices are required by law and thus amount to norms of customary international law. Building on Nouwen's previous research, the project integrates normative and empirical perspectives, international law and peace & conflict studies, and scholarly and practitioners' knowledge.
The ESRC praised the project proposal as "exceptionally strong" and as "one of the very rare socio-legal projects that genuinely and interestingly engages with both the 'socio' and the 'legal'". The project will start in January 2015 and run for three years.
