Dr Phil Clark

Associate Research Fellow

Contact details
pc44@soas.ac.uk
mobile:  +44 (0)7765287128

Phil Clark is a political scientist specialising in conflict and post-conflict issues in Africa, particularly transitional justice. His current work focuses on international, national and community-based responses to mass violence in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dr. Phil Clark is a lecturer in Comparative and International Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, a Golding Research Fellow at Brasenose College, and convenor of Oxford Transitional Justice Research. An Australian by nationality but born in Sudan, Dr Clark is a political scientist specialising in conflict and post-conflict issues in Africa, particularly questions of peace, truth, justice and reconciliation. He has a DPhil in Politics from Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He was previously an RCUK Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster. Dr. Clark’s current work focuses on international, national and community-based responses to mass violence in Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sudan. He has written extensively on the gacaca community courts in post-genocide Rwanda and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Dr. Clark was technical advisor and co-author of a 2007 UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights project surveying popular perceptions of transitional justice and peacebuilding in northern Uganda. He has advised the Danish, Sudanese, Swedish, Ugandan and UK governments, the ICC, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Human Rights Watch and Crisis Group on conflict issues in Africa.

Research Interests:

1. Causes of, and social, legal, cultural and political responses to, genocide and ethnic conflict, particularly in the African Great Lakes
2. Concepts and practice of transitional justice and reconciliation
3. The role of international, national and community-based courts in addressing mass atrocity
4. Peacebuilding, security and post-conflict reconstruction
5. Politics of international law, particularly of the International Criminal Court
6. Customary law and the use of local or traditional conflict resolution mechanisms in response to mass violence
7. The application of moral and political philosophy in responses to mass conflict, especially debates over conceptions of justice, reconciliation, truth, peace, healing and forgiveness.

Teaching and Supervision Interests:

1. Transitional justice and reconciliation, particularly in Africa
2. Genocide studies
3. Peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction
4. Politics, law and society of the African Great Lakes
5. Politics and law of the International Criminal Court
6. Customary law
7. Moral and political philosophy in the context of remedies to mass conflict

Publications:

MONOGRAPHS

The Gacaca Courts and Post-Genocide Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda: Justice without Lawyers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Doing Justice during Conflict: The International Criminal Court in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda (Under Review).

EDITED COLLECTIONS

International Courts and Mass Atrocity (In Draft, with Dan Butt)

After Genocide:  Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond, London:  Hurst; New York:  Columbia University Press, 2009 (With Zachary D. Kaufman)

Courting Conflict? Peace, Justice and the ICC in Africa, London:  Royal African Society, March 2008 (With Nicholas Waddell)

JOURNAL ARTICLES

“Ethnicity, Leadership and Conflict Resolution in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo:  The Case of the Barza Inter-Communautaire”, Journal of Eastern African Studies, February 2008.

“Hybridity, Holism and ‘Traditional’ Justice:  The Case of the Gacaca Community Courts in Post-Genocide Rwanda”, George Washington International Law Review, December 2007.

BOOK CHAPTERS

“Recreating Tradition:  Local Transitional Justice Mechanisms in Uganda and Rwanda” in T. Allen and K. Vlassenroot (eds.), The Lord’s Resistance Army:  War, Peace and Reconciliation, Oxford:  James Currey (forthcoming, 2010)

“Tensions in Transitional Justice”, in P. Clark and Z. Kaufman (eds.), After Genocide:  Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond, London:  Hurst; New York:  Columbia University Press, 2009 (With Zachary D. Kaufman and Kalypso Nicolaidis)

“After Genocide”, in P. Clark and Z. Kaufman (eds.), After Genocide:  Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond, London:  Hurst; New York:  Columbia University Press, 2009 (With Zachary Kaufman)

 “Establishing a Conceptual Framework of Transitional Justice:  Six Key Themes” in P. Clark and Z. Kaufman (eds.), After Genocide:  Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond, London:  Hurst; New York:  Columbia University Press, 2009.

 “The Rules (and Politics) of Engagement:  The Gacaca Courts and Post-Genocide Justice, Healing and Reconciliation in Rwanda”, in P. Clark and Z. Kaufman (eds.), After Genocide:  Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and Beyond, London:  Hurst; New York:  Columbia University Press, 2009. (Reprinted in C. Hoyle (ed.), Restorative Justice: Critical Concepts in Criminology, Routledge Major Works, 2009)

“Grappling in the Great Lakes:  The Challenges of International Justice in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda” in B. Bowden, H. Charlesworth and J. Farrall (eds.), Great Expectations:  The Role of International Law in Restructuring Societies after Conflict, Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2009.

 “Courting Conflict” in P. Clark and N. Waddell (eds.), Courting Conflict? Peace, Justice and the ICC in Africa, London:  Royal African Society, March 2008 (With Nicholas Waddell)

 “Law, Politics and Pragmatism:  ICC Case Selection in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda” in P. Clark and N. Waddell (eds.), Courting Conflict? Peace, Justice and the ICC in Africa, London:  Royal African Society, March 2008.

REPORTS

“Can International Courts Do Justice? Conceptions of Justice in Responding to Conflict”, Report and Workshop Analysis, Oxford: Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, 28-30 January 2009, http://www.fljs.org/uploads/documents/Clark_report.pdf

“Peace, Justice and the ICC in Africa”, Meeting Series Report, London: Royal African Society, March 2007, http://www.royalafricansociety.org/images/stories/pdf_files/peace%2Cjusticeandtheicc-seriesreport.pdf (With Nicholas Waddell)

“Making Peace Our Own:  Victims’ Perceptions of Accountability, Reconciliation and Transitional Justice in Northern Uganda”, Geneva:  United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, August 2007 (co-author, with United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights)

OP-EDS AND OTHER JOURNALISM

 “International Community Fails Rwanda Again”, Oxford Transitional Justice Research Working Paper Series, 5 May 2009, http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/otjr.php?show=currentDebate5 (With Nicola Palmer)

“Congo Crisis: Two Misjudgements”, International Herald Tribune, 7 November 2008, http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/07/opinion/edclark.php.

“Ocampo’s Darfur Strategy Depends on Congo”, Oxford Transitional Justice Research Working Paper Series, 20 August 2008, http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/documents/ Clark_2.pdf

“If Ocampo Indicts Bashir, Nothing May Happen”, Oxford Transitional Justice Research Working Paper Series, 13 July 2008, http://www.csls.ox.ac.uk/documents/ Clark_Final.pdf

 “Dilemmas of Justice”, Prospect, May 2007, http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9524.  (Reprinted in the Social Science Research Council Yearbook, 2007, http://www.ssrc.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/clark-and-waddell_dilemmas-of-justice.pdf) (With Nicholas Waddell)

“In the Shadow of the Volcano: Democracy and Justice in Congo”, Dissent, Winter 2007, http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=724.

“Traditional Justice:  Gacaca in Rwanda”, interview transcript in New Vision, Uganda, 9 December 2006, http://www.sundayvision.co.ug/detail.php?mainNewsCategory Id=7&news Category Id=132&newsId=536806

“Justice Must Be Relevant to Iraqis”, essay in PostGlobal Debate:  Salvaging Iraq, Washington Post, September 2006, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/debate/2006/ 09/justice_must_be_relevant_to_ir.html#more

 “When the Killers Go Home:  Local Justice in Rwanda”, Dissent, Summer 2005, pp.21-28, http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/su05/clark.htm.

BOOK REVIEWS

Review of Victor Peskin, International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and State Cooperation, Ethics and International Affairs, 22, 4, Winter 2008, http://www.cceia.org/resources/journal/22_4/reviews/003.html

“Hero, Failure or Casualty? – A Peacekeeper’s Experience of Genocide”, Dissent, Spring 2005, pp.115-121, http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/sp05/clark.htm.

Review of Nigel Eltringham, Accounting for Horror:  Post-Genocide Debates in Rwanda, African Affairs, 104, 414, January 2005, pp.146-147, http://afraf.oupjournals.org/cgi/reprint/104/414/146.

“Judging Genocide on the Grass”, Oxonian Review of Books, 3, 2, 2004, http://www.oxonianreview.org/issues/3-2/3-2-4.htm.

“Voices of the Victims”, Oxonian Review of Books, 3, 1, 2004, http://www.oxonianreview.org/issues/3-1/3-1-1.htm.