Translating Law into Practice: Museums and a Human Rights Community of Practice

This article uses the community of practice framework conceived by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger to demonstrate how museums form communities to support practices that aim to improve the human rights experiences of marginalized groups. The recent rise of a human rights museum practice provides rich examples of how communities of practice are formed around human rights. Museums are involved in legal practices at all moments in law’s narrative arc, from the initiation of claims to ordering remedies. The framework describes how communities support learning difficult knowledge, and how new norms are established, strengthened and shared amongst particular groups.