Post-conflict Transformation: The Process of Institutional Legitimation of the Police in Northern Ireland

Abstract

This article explores the complex nature and role of the reform of state institutions in facilitating and underpinning peace building and post-conflict transformation. Using the case study of police reform in Northern Ireland post the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, it considers the potential for institutional reform to legitimate state structures historically rejected as partisan or corrupt. The historical absence of legitimacy of policing in Northern Ireland created a context where police reform became a central plank—both real and symbolic—in the constitutional redesign of the state of Northern Ireland itself. The responses of the two dominant communities of Northern Ireland to the role of the police embodied the core constitutional questions which had historically divided the parties in the conflict. This article analyses the Patten Commission model of policing reform and its implementation process, considering, in particular, the implementation of three core strands of reform—representation, human rights and accountability—and the contribution each has made towards the institutional legitimation of the police in Northern Ireland and the post-conflict transformation process more generally.