Neil Kritz has been appointed as United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Senior Scholar in Residence. Kritz has spent the past eighteen years creating and building the Institute's Rule of Law Program, a vital resource for policymakers and practitioners around the world in understanding the nexus between conflict resolution and the rule of law, working on such topics as war crimes and transitional justice, constitution-making, model codes and law reform, customary systems of justice, strategies for addressing property disputes in the context of mass property displacements, and the development of strategies for the provision of rule of law assistance to countries at risk or emerging from violent conflict.

Kritz's three-volume work Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon With Former Regimes, published by USIP in 1995, became a standard reference work in the field, and led to policy guidance on the ground in countries ranging from Rwanda and the Balkans to Iraq and Nepal. "Neil has done an outstanding job in building Rule of Law as one of the flagship programs of the Institute, making us one of the premier institutions in the world in this field. Under his leadership, the Rule of Law Program has developed new ideas, intellectual capital, and practical tools, and has simultaneously provided practical assistance in over two dozen countries," noted USIP President Richard H. Solomon. "We look forward to Neil extending the Institute's impact in his new position as Senior Scholar in Residence."

In his new role, Kritz will focus primarily on analyzing and advising on efforts to strengthen the Palestinian justice system. Kritz has led USIP work on the topic, and beginning in 2000, he facilitated a series of Palestinian-Israeli legal dialogues at the request of the two respective ministers of justice. More recently, he served as an expert advisor on justice system issues in 2008-2009 on the team of then Special Envoy for Middle East Regional Security, General James Jones. Kritz said, "I have been proud to be part of the USIP leadership team over these past nearly two decades. I am grateful to the Institute for affording me this opportunity to build on this work and focus more intensively on selected issues like the Palestinian justice system and the Arab-Israeli peace process."