In association with the International Commission of Jurists

August 2020

24 Aug

[Priya Pillai is an international lawyer, head of the Asia Justice Coalition secretariat, and a contributing editor at Opinio Juris.] It has been three years since the forced exodus of the Rohingya from Myanmar was at its zenith, as a result of international crimes committed in Rakhine state. With close to a million individuals forced to flee to Bangladesh and other...

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21 Aug

[Larry D. Johnson is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School and the Former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs.] The US suffered a humiliating defeat on 14 August 2020 when the UN Security Council failed to adopt a US proposal to extend certain arms restrictions on Iran that are scheduled to be lifted soon pursuant to the “nuclear deal” (JCPOA) concluded in 2015 by China,...

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21 Aug

[Julianne Hughes-Jennett is a partner in Quinn Emanuel’s London office and the head of Quinn Emanuel’s Business and Human Rights Group. Laila Hamzi is a senior associate in Quinn Emanuel’s London office. Her practice focuses on international arbitration, public international law and business and human rights. Ram Mashru is an associate in Quinn Emanuel’s London office.  His practice focuses on...

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21 Aug

[Richard Mackenzie-Gray Scott is a consultant at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.] There is an issue that has remained unscrutinised within the field of international law. This issue requires a spotlight being cast on subjects that some individuals and institutions may deem taboo. It also calls for open discussions and concrete action if it is to be effectively addressed. This issue is exploitation, specifically...

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21 Aug

[Sue Farran is a Reader at Newcastle University Law School, with a particular interest in Pacific island states on which she has published widely, especially in the context of human rights, natural resources and environmental challenges. Rhona Smith is Professor of International Human Rights at Newcastle University and has worked on human rights capacity building across the Asia Pacific region. Sean Molloy is a Lecturer at Northumbria University...

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21 Aug

[Mona Ali Khalil is the Director of MAK LAW INTERNATIONAL; an Affiliate of the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict; and a former Senior Legal Officer of the United Nations. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in international relations from Harvard University as well as a M.S. in Foreign Service and a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown...

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21 Aug

[Oumar Ba is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Morehouse College.] To write is a privilege. To be read, an honor. It takes unbounded generosity to critically engage with a book and offer an incisive critique in the midst of a global pandemic that has upended our lives.  For that, I owe a profound debt of gratitude to my brilliant colleagues who have made this...

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20 Aug

[Dr Sithembile Mbete is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Pretoria.] In his book States of Justice: The Politics of the International Criminal Court, Oumar Ba masterfully engages the politics of international justice by examining how weaker states have used the International Criminal Court (ICC) to advance their security and political interests in a manner that belies the ‘justice cascade’ argument made...

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19 Aug

[Kelly-Jo Bluen is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and the editor of Millennium: Journal of International Studies responsible for the conference and special issue on knowledge production in International Relations. She works on race, gender, coloniality, and international justice.] In States of Justice, Oumar Ba provides a crucial latticework for thinking through the relationship between states and...

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19 Aug

[Ezéchiel Amani Cirimwami is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law. He is also completing a joint PhD in international law at the Université Catholique de Louvain and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is a sitting judge and a former Deputy Public Prosecutor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.] I was thrilled when invited to provide some...

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18 Aug

[Nestor Nkurunziza is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Burundi (on leave for doctoral research at the University of Ottawa)]. Much has been written on the crisis with the ICC in recent literature. However, Oumar Ba’s ‘States of Justice’ brings a great contribution to the existing scholarship, both in terms of the conceptual framework used and the relevance of the case studies...

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18 Aug

[K.K. Sithebe is a PhD Candidate at the University of Pretoria and a Research Advisor, South African Human Rights Commission.] Professor Oumar Ba’s States of Justice provides much needed scholarship on the subject of international criminal justice and self-referrals. Prof. Ba provides a meticulous account of how individual African states, particularly Uganda, have since exploited the self-referral mechanism as envisaged in the Rome Statute. Further, this fine scholar...

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