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SAMRISK-2-Samfunnssikkerhet og risiko

LAW22JULY: RIPPLES (Rights, Institutions, Procedures, Participation, Litigation:Embedding Security)

Alternative title: LAW22JULY: Rettigheter, institusjoner, prosedyrer, deltagelse og rettsprosesser etter terror

Awarded: NOK 12.0 mill.

Project Number:

300214

Application Type:

Project Period:

2020 - 2025

Partner countries:

Combining socio-legal approaches, doctrinal law, ethics, and urban studies, this interdisciplinary project highlights the many legal implications and processes in the aftermath of the 22. The project's fourth year was characterized by fieldwork, data analysis, and academic writing. The project, including the UK partners, published a number of articles focusing on different aspects of the aftermath of terror, including security, transitional justice, economic compensation, legal mobilization, and the predicament of social citizenship for victims in the Welfare state. Publications focused thematically on the litigation to halt and re-site the national memorial at Utøya; the mobilization to save the Y-bloc and the notion of cultural heritage as a contentious human rights issue after terror. Ongoing work focus, among others, on the multiyear complaints process to overturn the outcome of the architectural competition for the new Government quarters and on the problem of legal accountability in light of post-2011 mass violence events (Bærum Mosque, Kongsberg and PRIDE) involving perpetrators with severe mental health illness. Research is ongoing in all work packages. We have recruited and graduated two master's students focused on economic compensation schemes and the zoning of the Government complex. We have hosted an international breakfast meeting at PRIO, participated in meetings for the 22 July support groups and presented our work at the 22 July Survivors Association annual conference, and been at Utøya with Amnesty International and at the European International Studies Association. We participated with the panel “Disputed Law & Contested Memory" panel at EISA`s Pan-European Conference on International Relations in Potsdam (September 2023). In light of the increasing fragmentation of the 22 July research, the project has secured an initial contract for a Norwegian language four-volume anthology project gathering contributions on survivors' and victims’; memory, the rule of law, and the government complex.

22 July 2011, Anders Behring Breivik massacred 77 people in a terrorist attack commonly referred to in Norway as '22 July'. The State responded with a rule of law approach to rebuild societal security. Yet beyond the criminal trial, the legal responses, including bureaucratic practices and regulatory techniques, have not been researched. To enhance future preparedness and public accountability, this knowledge gap must be bridged. Asking 'what is the role of legal responses in rebuilding and strengthening societal security after violent extremist attacks', this interdisciplinary, qualitative project develops a conceptual and empirical basis for exploring the legal ripple effects of 22 July, implicating multiple fields of public and private law. A study of responses to terror attacks in Manchester in 1992, 1996 and 2017 provides a comparative frame. The project is developed around three work packages: 1. Urban security: The role of law in the reconstruction of post-terrorism space and the securitization of urban space and urban life 2. Citizenship and rights: The role of welfare provision (livelihood/compensation) as contributors to societal security and resilience 3. Rule of law: political economy, societal security, and the resilience of the rule of law WP 1-3 will produce 6 case studies serving as the basis for articles, policy briefs, blog posts, op eds and a pedagogic pilot concept for higher education. Project partners are PRIO, Queen Mary UCL, U Warwick and U Manchester. The project team and advisory board consist of leading socio-legal, legal, security and urban studies scholars, with broad experience in research and policy-making on 22 July, societal security, and welfare and urban security implications of terrorism, and PhD and MAs. The objective is to produce high-quality scholarship and effective policy advice as well as publicly accessible documentation of the legal responses to these events, engaging all stakeholders in knowledge-based conversations.

Publications from Cristin

Funding scheme:

SAMRISK-2-Samfunnssikkerhet og risiko