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Professor in the Durham Law School+44 (0) 191 33 46864
Co-convenor of Law and Global Justice at Durham in the Durham Law School

Biography

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.

Research interests

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

Esteem Indicators

  • 2024: NATO- Civil Society Advisory Panel: Appointed member of the Civil Society Advisory Panel on Women Peace and Security for NATO.
  • 2023: Folks Bernadotte Academy -International Research Working Group on Peace Mediation and Dialogue:
  • 2023: LSE- External Examiner for MSc Gender Peace and Security:
  • 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.

Publications

Authored book

Book review

Chapter in book

Conference Paper

Edited book

Journal Article

Presentation

Report

Supervision students