No region has felt the burden of liberal rule of law exports like sub-Saharan Africa. From the ICTR in Rwanda to hybrid tribunals in Sierra Leone, Senegal and the Central African Republic, to nearly the entirety of the International Criminal Court's practice, Africa has been a central site of experimentation regarding law's potential to constrain political violence. The justice laboratory visits five international criminal justice institutions that have worked, or which are under advisement, in Africa to examine how local and institutional politics impact the law practiced by supranational rule-of-law institutions.
Kerstin Bree Carlson is Associate Professor at Roskilde University, where she teaches law and society-related topics. She is also affiliated with iCourts at the University of Copenhagen and The American University of Paris. She is the author of Model(ing) justice: Perfecting the promise of international law in Africa (Chatham House/Brookings 2022), and co-editor of The president on trial: Prosecuting Hissène Habré (OUP 2020) and Transitional justice in aparadigmatic contexts: Accountability, recognition and disruption (Routledge 2023) as well as several articles and book chapters on topics in international criminal law and transitional justice. She writes frequently for The conversation blog. Her current research focuses on how terror law is impacting law and society in France and Denmark.