Gene Carolan, a PhD student with Maynooth University Department of Law, recently spoke at the International Mediation and Restorative Practices Conference held by the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University. The conference explored creative responses to conflict through mediation and restorative practices, and Gene presented his paper "Bending the Law, Keeping the Peace: Legal Pragmatism in Conflict Resolution" in this context.
Gene's paper argued for a more pragmatic, utilitarian theoretical framework for legalised peace-building instruments. Gene demonstrated that international law has proven flexible in this regard on previous occasions, and argued, by reference to case studies in Cambodia, Sudan and the former Yugoslavia, that the international community has created legal anomalies in the past in order to further processes of peace.