Staff profile

Catherine Turner is Professor of International Law and Deputy Director of the Durham Global Security Institute. Her work sits at the intersection of international law and global policy in the field of international peace and security. She has a particular interest in peace mediation as a tool for the prevention, management and resolution of armed conflict. She has published extensively in the fields of peace mediation and transitional justice, focusing on promoting more inclusive approaches.

From 2022-2024 Catherine will be a Leverhulme Trust Fellow, researching on the concept of peace mediation. 

Catherine has consulted widely on inclusive leadership and increasing participation in peace processes for international organisations, governments and charities, including UN Women, the International Peace Institute, the Mediterranean Women’s Mediator Network, Beyond Borders Scotland, and Conciliation Resources. She has extensive experience as a practitioner, trainer and facilitator in mediation and good relations both in Northern Ireland and internationally. She has designed and delivered bespoke training in women’s leadership in peace mediation, as well as training and facilitation in transitional justice and peace mediation for women from conflict affected states across the world.Catherine holds an LLB from Trinity College Dublin, an LLM in Public International Law from the London School of Economics, and a Phd in Law from Queen’s University Belfast. She is currently a trustee and Co-Chair of the Board of Belfast based NGO Mediation Northern Ireland. She is also a member of the Board of the Brussels based MediatEUr (The European Platform for International Mediation and Dialogue).

Research Interests

 Catherine's research focuses on the role of international law and conflict, specialising in how the law regulates matters of war and peace, including international humanitarian law, peace mediation, and transitional justice. Her work is inherently interdisciplinary, focusing on the thematic area of peace and security and the ways in which the law interacts with other discplines. In Michaelmas Term 2019 Catherine led an Institute of Advanced Study Major Project Fellowship on Mediation for the 21st Century: Connecting the Local and the Global. This project focused on understanding conflict, and mediation, from the perspective of those who are affected by it, asking how mediation may need to adapt to accommodate the realities of 21st Century conflict.

Catherine has particular interest and expertise in women's participation in mediation, and through her research she has articulated specific gaps in the mediation literature that make women institutionally invisible. This work has helped to reframe the contrbution of women and women's leadership to the field of peace and security, as well as interrogating the inherently exclusionary nature of traditional mediation practice. As such her work is was at the forefront of thinking that connects WPS with mediation theory rather than simply peace process literature.

.She is a member of the editorial board of Global Policy. 

Research Supervision

Catherine welcomes proposals from prospective MJur and PhD students in the fields of international law and conflict, broadly defined. This can include but is not limited to projects in the fields of transitional justice, mediation, peace negotiations and women, peace and security.

• Public International Law
• Transitional Justice
• Women Peace and Security
• Post Conflict Reconstruction
• Peace Mediation
• Critical Legal Theory

• 2024: NATO- Civil Society Advisory Panel: Appointed member of the Civil Society Advisory Panel on Women Peace and Security for NATO.
• 2023: LSE- External Examiner for MSc Gender Peace and Security:
• 2023: Folks Bernadotte Academy -International Research Working Group on Peace Mediation and Dialogue:
• 2022: Associate Fellow - Geneva Centre for Security Policy:
• 2019: Board- Conciliation Resources EU:
• 2019: Northern Ireland Consultative Group on Women, Peace and Security.: Irish Secretariat, Belfast.

Authored book

• Turner, C. (2016). Violence, Law and the Impossibility of Transitional Justice. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315695044
• Turner, C., Quinn, L., Murphy, T., & Shields, R. (2014). The Law of Property in Northern Ireland. Colourpoint Educational

Book review

• Turner, C. (2023). Book Review: Transitional Justice and the Historical Abuses of Church and State by JAMES GALLEN. Social and Legal Studies, 33(4), https://doi.org/10.1177/09646639231222920

Chapter in book

• Turner, C., & Davidovic, M. (2023). Transitional Justice: An Interdisciplinary Landscape?. In C. Lawther, & L. Moffet (Eds.), Research Handbook on Transitional Justice (26-43). (2nd edn.). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802202519.00011
• Turner, C., & Wählisch, M. (2021). Rethinking Peace Mediation: Trends and Challenges. In C. Turner, & M. Wählisch (Eds.), Rethinking Peace Mediation: Challenges of Contemporary Peacemaking Practice (1-16). Bristol University Press
• Turner, C. (2021). Gender and Mediation. In O. Richmond, & G. Visoka (Eds.), Palgrave Encyclopaedia of Peace and Conflict Studies. Palgrave
• Fellin, I., & Turner, C. (2021). Women’s Mediator Networks: Reflections on an Emerging Global Trend. In C. Turner, & M. Wählisch (Eds.), Rethinking Peace Mediation: Challenges of Contemporary Peacemaking Practice (285-306). Bristol University Press
• Turner, C. (2021). Mapping a Norm of Inclusion in the Jus Post Bellum. In C. Stahn, & J. Iverson (Eds.), Just Peace After Conflict: Jus Post Bellum and the Justice of Peace (130-146). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198823285.003.0008
• Turner, C. (2021). Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding. In O. Richmond, & G. Visoka (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Peacebuilding, Statebuilding and Peace Formation. Oxford University Press
• Turner, C. (2017). Transitional justice and critique. In C. Lawther, L. Moffett, & D. Jacobs (Eds.), Research Handbook on Transitional Justice (52-73). Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781955314.00010
• Turner, C., & Houghton, R. (2015). Constitution Making and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. In M. Saul, & J. A. Sweeney (Eds.), International law and post-conflict reconstruction policy (119-140). Routledge

Conference Paper

• Turner, C. (2018, December). Promoting Inclusion Through Networks of Women Mediators: New Trends and Research Directions. Paper presented at Political Settlements Research Project Gender Conference, Belfast
• Turner, C. (2013, December). The Importance of Theory as a Tool of Transitional Justice Research. Paper presented at International Studies Association, San Francisco, California
• Turner, C. (2012, December). Public Space or Gated Community? Accessing the Garden of Transitional Justice. Paper presented at Critical Legal Conference - 'Gardens of Justice', Stockholm
• Turner, C. (2012, December). Politics as Transitional Justice. Paper presented at Political Studies Association, Belfast

Edited book

• Turner, C., & Waehlisch, M. (Eds.). (2021). Rethinking Peace Mediation: Challenges of Contemporary Peacemaking Practice. Bristol University Press

Journal Article

• Turner, C. (online). Inclusion in the Northern Ireland Peace Process: A ‘History of the Present’. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2024.2365512
• Davidović, M., & Turner, C. (2023). What Counts as Transitional Justice Scholarship? Citational Recognition and Disciplinary Hierarchies in Theory and Practice. International Studies Quarterly, 67(4), Article sqad091. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqad091
• Turner, C., & Swaine, A. (2023). Law, Language and the Power of "Invisible Threats" of Violence Against Women. Journal of Law and Society, 50(3), 392-413. https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12442
• Turner, C., & Swaine, A. (2023). Aligning Participation and Protection in the Women Peace and Security Agenda. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 72(2), 477-508. https://doi.org/10.1017/s002058932300009x
• Turner, C. (2023). International Law and the Securitisation of Peacemaking: On Chapter VII, the Security Council and the Mediation Mandate in Yemen. Journal of Conflict & Security Law, 28(1), 161-186. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcsl/krac031
• Twemlow, J., Turner, C., & Swaine, A. (2022). Moving in a State of Fear: Ambiguity, Gendered Temporality and the Phenomenology of Anticipating Violence. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 48(1), 87-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2022.2138185
• Turner, C. (2020). 'Soft Ways of Doing Hard Things': Women Mediators and the Question of Gender in Mediation. Peacebuilding, 8(4), 383-401. https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2019.1664369
• Turner, C. (2018). Absent or Invisible? Women Mediators and the United Nations. Global Policy, 9(2), 244-253. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12532
• Turner, C. (2016). Editorial Comment: Law and Negotiation in Conflict: Theory, Policy, Practice. Global Policy, 7(2), 256-260. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12336
• Turner, C. (2015). Transitional Constitutionalism and the Case of the Arab Spring. International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 64(02), 267-291. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0020589315000020
• Turner, C. (2013). Deconstructing Transitional Justice. Law and Critique, 24(2), 193-209. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10978-013-9119-z
• Zacharopoulou, A., & Turner, C. (2013). Peer assisted learning and the creation of a “learning community” for first year law students. The Law Teacher, 47(2), 192-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2013.790159
• Turner, C. (2011). Human Rights and the Empire of (International) Law. Law & inequality, 29(2), 313-342
• Turner, C. (2010). Political Representations of Law in Northern Ireland. Public Law, 3, 451-459
• Campbell, C., & Turner, C. (2008). Utopia and the Doubters: Truth, Transition and the Law. Legal Studies, 28(3), 374-395. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-121x.2008.00093.x
• Turner, C. (2008). Delivering Lasting Peace, Democracy and Human Rights in Times of Transition: The Role of International Law. International Journal of Transitional Justice, 2(2), 126-151. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijn017
• Ni Aolain, F., & Turner, C. (2007). Gender, Truth and Transition. UCLA Women's Law Journal, 16, 229-279

Presentation

• Turner, C. (2012, December). Constituting a Nation: The Critical Concept of Democracy in Transition. Paper presented at Minerva Jerusalem Conference on Transitional Justice, Jerusalem

Report

• Turner, C., & Palmiano Federer, J. (2024). Doing Things Differently: Mediating in Mozambique. Geneva: Geneva Centre for Security Policy
• Turner, C., & Swaine, A. (2023). Full, Equal, Meaningful and Safe: Creating Enabling Environments for Women's Participation in Libya. International Peace Institute
• Jokubauskaite, G., & Turner, C. (2022). Mediation and Development Finance. International Institute for Environment and Development
• Turner, C., & Bell, C. (2021). Increasing the Representation of Women Peace Mediators: Collaborative Leadership Models for Ensuring Equality. UN Women
• Turner, C., & Swaine, A. (2021). At the Nexus of Participation and Protection: Protection Related Barriers to Women's Participation in Northern Ireland. International Peace Institute
• Poutanen, J., & Turner, C. (2021). Overcoming Essentialisation: Understanding and Supporting Women's Diverse Roles in Peace Processes. CMI- Martii Ahtisaari Peace Foundation
• Bell, C., & Turner, C. (2021). Models for Women's Inclusion in Track One Mediation, Peace and Transition Processes. [No known commissioning body]