What is it about?
Cross-national databases are a useful way for compile information on transitional justice mechanisms and facilitate comparisons between the forms these mechanisms can take. Some databases are used to explain how different transitional context give rise to different forms of mechanisms, and how these mechanisms once created can contribute to achieving outcomes such as democracy, the rule of law and greater protections of human rights. We have created a new database to systematically analyse the elements of research design underpinning the existing transitional justice databases. This article looks at how different approaches to research design shape the findings of existing transitional justice databases.
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Why is it important?
Transitional justice database research has resulted in important insights, but to date,some of the findings have been patchy and contradictory. Drawing on a new database relating to the key elements of research design in 20 databases of transitional justice mechanisms, we find that the databases studied are constructed for a range of distinct purposes, which in turn shape different approaches to research design and lead to divergent findings. We argue that greater transparency and reflection on the diverse purposes of databases can help scholars appreciate how different forms of databases can be used in a complementary manner.
Perspectives
In 2003, I began to create the Amnesty Law Database, and I have been working on it intermittently over the past 13 years. This database compiles detailed descriptive profiles relating to the enactment, scope and implementation of individual amnesty processes. It can also be used to compare aspects of amnesty (such as which crimes are covered), between amnesty processes, across regions and over time. When I began working on it, there was little literature on doing this form of research within the transitional justice field. Over the years, when I attended conference, I found other scholars used the term 'database' to very different forms of data collection and that the fuzzy nature of the term sometimes led to misunderstandings. For me, this article is in part a response to these conversations and as such it seeks to highlight the similarities and differences between different forms of databases. I also hope it will help future database researchers to reflect upon how their research aims should shape the design of a database from its inception.
Prof Louise Mallinder
University of Ulster
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Databases of Transitional Justice Mechanisms and Contexts: Comparing Research Purposes and Design, International Journal of Transitional Justice, August 2016, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/ijtj/ijw012.
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