Law in the Twilight

An informative book focusing on the internationalisation and legalisation of peace agreements to settle intra-state conflicts between state and non-state parties. Cindy Wittke focuses on two key issues: how international courts and tribunals deal with peace agreements; and what implications the United Nations Security Council's involvement in the negotiation and implementation of peace agreements has for the agreements' legal nature, the status of the non-state parties to agreements and the interpretation of peace agreements. Wittke argues that the processes of negotiating and implementing peace agreements between state and non-state parties create new spheres, spaces and forms of post-conflict law making and law enforcement. For example, contemporary peace agreements can simultaneously take the form and function of internationalised transitional constitutions and agreements governed by international law. The resulting characteristics of contemporary peace agreement lead to permanent ambiguities shaping their interpretation and enforcement.

Cindy Wittke is the leader of the research group 'Frozen and Unfrozen Conflicts' at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IOS) in Regensburg, Germany.