Law, struggle, and political transformation in Northern Ireland

This article analyses the role of law as an element of the Republican Movem ent's violent and political struggle during the Northern Ireland conflict. The trials and legal hearings of paramilitary defendants, the use of judici al reviews in the prisons, and the use of law in the political arena are ch osen as three interconnected sites which highlight the complex interaction between law and other forms of struggle. The author argues that these three sites illustrate a number of themes in understanding the role of law in pr ocesses of struggle and political transformation. These include: law as a s eries of dialogical processes both inside and outside a political movement; law as an instrumental process of struggle designed to materially and symb olically 'resist'; and the constitutive effects of legal struggle upon a so cial and political movement. The article concludes with a discussion as to whether or not Republicans' emphasis upon 'rights and equality' and an end to armed struggle represents a 'sell out' of traditional Republican objecti ves.