Nicola Palmer

Biography

Dr Nicola Palmer joined King’s College London in January 2013 and is currently a senior lecturer in criminal law. She was previously the Global Justice Research Fellow at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford and convenor of Oxford Transitional Justice Research (OTJR), an inter-disciplinary network of university staff and students working on issues of transition in societies recovering from mass conflict and/or repressive rule. Dr Palmer received her DPhil in law from the University of Oxford in 2011. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, she worked as a legal assistant at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), having completed her undergraduate and honours degrees in law and economics at Rhodes University, South Africa. She was an American Society for International Law Helton Fellow in 2009 and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 2007.   Dr Nicola Palmer joined King’s College London in January 2013 and is currently a senior lecturer in criminal law. She was previously the Global Justice Research Fellow at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford and convenor of Oxford Transitional Justice Research (OTJR), an inter-disciplinary network of university staff and students working on issues of transition in societies recovering from mass conflict and/or repressive rule. Dr Palmer received her DPhil in law from the University of Oxford in 2011. Prior to starting her doctoral studies, she worked as a legal assistant at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), having completed her undergraduate and honours degrees in law and economics at Rhodes University, South Africa. She was an American Society for International Law Helton Fellow in 2009 and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 2007.  

Research Interest

"Dr Palmer’s broad research interests are in international criminal law, transitional justice and the compatibility of plural responses to violence. Her recent monograph focuses on criminal justice in post-genocide Rwanda, examining the interactions among international, national and localised criminal courts. Among other topics, she has published on the transfer of cases from the ICTR to the Rwandan national courts and the domestic interpretations of international law in Rwanda. In addition, Dr. Palmer has recently completed an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) project, in collaboration with Dr Briony Jones at swisspeace, on the methods used to formulate, implement and assess transitional justice processes. The papers from this collaboration are published as a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal of Law and Society.   Dr Nicola Palmer is currently working with the Aegis Trust, a UK and Rwandan-based charity, on an innovative peer-to-peer mentoring project designed to answer the question; How can research collaborations change policy-making and academic writings on justice in post-genocide Rwanda? Dr Palmer spoke to the School of Law at King's College London about the project in a short video which can be viewed online."