Email: r.a.sutton@lse.ac.uk

Title: 'Struggles with Distinction: How Humanitarian Actors Produce the Civilian in Armed Conflict' [provisional]

Supervisors: Professor Gerry Simpson and Dr Devika Hovell

Rebecca Sutton is a PhD candidate in Law at the LSE, where she is a Trudeau Scholar and SSHRC Scholar. Her doctoral research engages with the principle of distinction in International Humanitarian Law, exploring how international actors struggle with ‘distinction’ when they encounter each other in armed conflicts. In 2016 Rebecca is a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Doctoral Fellow with Anne Orford’s ARC-funded Civil War, Intervention, and International Law Laureate project at the University of Melbourne.

Rebecca holds a JD (Hons) and Certificate in Aboriginal Legal Studies from the University of Toronto, where she was awarded the Dean’s Key. She also holds an MSc (Dist.) in Violence, Conflict and Development from SOAS. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 2013 after clerking at the Ontario Court of Appeal. Rebecca previously worked in the humanitarian field, serving as Country Director for War Child Canada in Darfur, Sudan from 2009-2011.

Research Interests: International Humanitarian Law; armed conflict; civil-military relations; humanitarian action; peacekeeping; law and perceptions; detention practices; juvenile justice; mental health law; migration; aboriginal law.

Selected Publications:

“How Sweden is Using Virtual Reality to Help the Military Work with Civilians”, The Conversation, July 2016.

“It is a Cold Liaison! Military Perceptions of Humanitarian Distinction”, International Law Grrls Blog, April 2016.

“Immigration Detention in South Africa: The View from Inside Lindela”, chapter in Furman R., Epps D., Lamphear G (Eds.), Detaining the Immigrant Other: Global and Transnational Issues, Oxford University Press, April 2016.

"Working Together: Civil-Military Perceptions in West Africa”, Crisis Response Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2, December 2015.

“Dirty Puddles and Safety Valves: The Path from Fact to Remedy in Canada (A.G.) v. PHS Community Services Society (the Insite case)”, National Journal of Constitutional Law, Vol. 33, September 2014, pp. 39-60.

“A Class Action on Behalf of Federally-Sentenced Women (FSW) with Mental Health Issues”, Canadian Graduate Journal of Sociology and Criminology, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2014, pp. 54-71.

“Canada’s Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act: Mental Disorder and the Danger of Public Safety”, The Criminal Law Quarterly, Vol. 60, No.1, June 2013, pp. 34-63.