Accountability in Internationally Administered Territories and the Impact of a (Post) - Conflict Context on Interdisciplinary Legal Research

Abstract

Armed conflict and its aftermath raise issues that can be answered through traditional doctrinal legal research. For instance, the scope and content of the legal obligations that apply to an individual member of a United Nations peacekeeping mission are determined by a straight analysis of the law. But conflict also creates many research problems that operate at the intersection between law and other disciplines, such as the issue of how to ensure accountability in a war-torn territory that is subject to international administration. This helps to explain why law is consistently included in calls for interdisciplinary research on issues stemming from (post)-conflict situations. Through analysis of a research paper by Professor Richard Caplan on accountability of internationally administered territories, this paper considers the possibility that a (post)-conflict context could add an extra layer to the complexity of interdisciplinary legal research. More specifically, the paper identifies and explores possible complications that might arise if one were to try and fully combine a policy perspective with an international legal perspective in the analysis of the accountability of international administration of war-torn territories. A central point is that there are good reasons to expect that a (post)-conflict context will complicate the design and implementation of interdisciplinary legal research.