In this presentation, Alex Batesmith discusses how international lawyers in overseas rule of law and transitional justice projects can become more interculturally effective when working with their national counterparts. Alex Batesmith describes the environmental, organisational and individual barriers to international lawyers working effectively, and identifies how improving and further refining specific knowledge, skills and attitudes can help any lawyer become better able to meet the considerable challenges of working in conflict-affected and other difficult environments. In conclusion, Alex Batesmith offers some practical suggestions for organisations and employers as they seek to make structural changes to enable their consultants and employees – and also the projects on which they work – more effective.

Alex Batesmith is a Manchester-based barrister and mediator with twenty years’ practical legal experience in national and international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law, transitional justice, conflict resolution and rule of law issues. Alex spent five years as an international prosecutor for the United Nations in Kosovo and Cambodia and has worked in more than a dozen countries around the world on rule of law and transitional justice issues.