PhD Research Project
PhD Research Project
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Beyond State Court: Civil Society Tribunals and the Politics of Justice from Below
Beyond State Court: Civil Society Tribunals and the Politics of Justice from Below
Research Overview – PhD Project, Madlyn Sauer, University of Zurich, Cultural Analysis
Research Overview – PhD Project, Madlyn Sauer, University of Zurich, Cultural Analysis
Since the Russell Tribunal on Vietnam (1966–67), civil society actors have repeatedly organized their own tribunals as a form of resistance. These tribunals aim to investigate grave injustices and people’s and human rights violations that official courts either ignore or are unable to address due to structural limitations. Self-organized tribunals bring together survivor organizations, lawyers, artists, and human rights advocates. These tribunals issue indictments, gather evidence, hear testimonies, and render judgments. Even though their judgments lack formal legal authority, they serve several important purposes: They recognize and validate the survivors pain for the crimes and injustices they have suffered,document instances of violence and resistance, shape public debate, exert political pressure on state institutions, and promote transnational solidarity. The tribunal format has proven to be a persistent and adaptable tool for justice “from below” for over six decades, addressing historical and contemporary injustices, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, ecological destruction, and violations of human and peoples’ rights, as well as other forms of structural and systemic injustice like colonialism.
Since the Russell Tribunal on Vietnam (1966–67), civil society actors have repeatedly organized their own tribunals as a form of resistance. These tribunals aim to investigate grave injustices and people’s and human rights violations that official courts either ignore or are unable to address due to structural limitations. Self-organized tribunals bring together survivor organizations, lawyers, artists, and human rights advocates. These tribunals issue indictments, gather evidence, hear testimonies, and render judgments. Even though their judgments lack formal legal authority, they serve several important purposes: They recognize and validate the survivors pain for the crimes and injustices they have suffered,document instances of violence and resistance, shape public debate, exert political pressure on state institutions, and promote transnational solidarity. The tribunal format has proven to be a persistent and adaptable tool for justice “from below” for over six decades, addressing historical and contemporary injustices, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, ecological destruction, and violations of human and peoples’ rights, as well as other forms of structural and systemic injustice like colonialism.
Research focus: My PhD project explores how civil society actors practically organize and build these tribunals — from forming coalitions and conceptualizing the tribunal format to producing evidence, assembling juries, preparing witnesses, hearing testimony, and organizing counter-publics. This practice-based perspective highlights the everyday organizing work involved, such as negotiating disagreements, building transnational solidaristic networks, and translating experiences across contexts and continents through which justice from below is not merely demanded but actively created.
Research focus: My PhD project explores how civil society actors practically organize and build these tribunals — from forming coalitions and conceptualizing the tribunal format to producing evidence, assembling juries, preparing witnesses, hearing testimony, and organizing counter-publics. This practice-based perspective highlights the everyday organizing work involved, such as negotiating disagreements, building transnational solidaristic networks, and translating experiences across contexts and continents through which justice from below is not merely demanded but actively created.
Methodology: The project is based on a multi-sited ethnography conducted over several years in Germany, Colombia, and the Western Balkans, combining about 70 in-depth interviews with tribunal organizers, jurors, lawyers, artists, and survivors with participant observation, research stays and field research, archival research, and document analysis.
Methodology: The project is based on a multi-sited ethnography conducted over several years in Germany, Colombia, and the Western Balkans, combining about 70 in-depth interviews with tribunal organizers, jurors, lawyers, artists, and survivors with participant observation, research stays and field research, archival research, and document analysis.
Three case studies:
Three case studies:
- Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Political Genocide, Impunity, and Crimes Against Peace, Colombia
- Women’s Court – A Feminist Approach to Justice for the Former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Tribunal ‘Unraveling the NSU Complex,’ Germany
Relevance: Since the 1970s, more than 180 civil society tribunals have been convened worldwide, yet they remain rarely studied as a distinct practice in their own right — with their own methods, traditions, and concepts of a more just and solidaristic justice “from below.” Even within human rights scholarship, systematic knowledge of tribunals and their diversity remains scarce. At the same time, this research speaks directly to practical challenges shared with human rights work: questions of evidence-gathering, victim participation, coalition-building, and public legitimacy where formal justice mechanisms are blocked, unavailable, or insufficient.
Relevance: Since the 1970s, more than 180 civil society tribunals have been convened worldwide, yet they remain rarely studied as a distinct practice in their own right — with their own methods, traditions, and concepts of a more just and solidaristic justice “from below.” Even within human rights scholarship, systematic knowledge of tribunals and their diversity remains scarce. At the same time, this research speaks directly to practical challenges shared with human rights work: questions of evidence-gathering, victim participation, coalition-building, and public legitimacy where formal justice mechanisms are blocked, unavailable, or insufficient.
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