In association with the International Commission of Jurists

Symposia

21 Jan

[Chanel Chauvet earned her Master of Laws in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. She also holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. This is a post in our joint blog symposium with ICRC's Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog exploring the new ICRC...

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18 Dec

Justice as Message is 436-page is a detailed exploration of justice as a message, including the various forms, messaging can take. Of particular interest to me was chapter 6, “International criminal law as expressivist justice-meanings, implications and critiques.” Stahn opens this chapter by stating that “expressivist practices have a larger space in international criminal justice than traditionally assumed.” Whether we like it or not, in the business of...

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18 Dec

[Priya Urs is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Laws, University College London, where her doctoral research addresses the application of the gravity criterion for admissibility at the International Criminal Court. (priya.urs.17@ucl.ac.uk)] Carsten Stahn’s Justice as Message introduces and examines the myriad manifestations of expression in the field of international criminal justice. The contribution of the book is its ambitious inquiry into the use of expressivism as a...

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17 Dec

[Marina Aksenova is a Professor of international and comparative criminal law at IE University, Madrid, email: marina.aksenova@ie.edu.] I enjoyed reading Carsten Stahn’s Justice as Message (OUP, 2020). The work presents a carefully weaved tapestry of ideas surrounding the concept of expressivism in international criminal law. The book is undertaking an impressive task of bridging a normative gap between the ambition of international criminal law and its reality...

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16 Dec

[Darryl Robinson is an Associate Professor at Queen’s University Faculty of Law (Canada), specializing in international criminal justice.]  Carsten Stahn’s Justice as Message is a singularly impressive work.  Carsten weaves together ideas from several bodies of literature, in a manner that is breathtaking in its depth, breadth and sensitivity.  Over the last 25 years, scholarship on international criminal law (ICL) has been greatly enriched.  In earlier, lonelier days...

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15 Dec

[Mark A. Drumbl is the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law and Director, Transnational Law Institute, Washington and Lee University.] Carsten Stahn, in the very first line of his terrifically impressive book, invokes a jingle from The Police. When I was teenage boy, I loved the Police. I greatly fancied Sting, his confidence and his presence, and how in his songs he tapped into the churn and...

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14 Dec

[Diane Marie Amann is the Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia School of Law.] The eye cannot help but be drawn to the cover of Justice as Message, the new analysis by Carsten Stahn of, to quote the subtitle, Expressivist Foundations of International Criminal Justice. On the high-gloss paper jacket...

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14 Dec

[Carsten Stahn is a Professor of International Criminal Law and Global Justice at Leiden Law School, Programme Director of the Grotius Centre (The Hague) and author of Justice as Message: Expressivist Foundations of International Law.] Blogs play an essential role in discussing scholarship. With more books being published each year, it is difficult for a general readership to keep track of publications...

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14 Dec

This week, we are happy to host an insightful discussion on Carsten Stahn's latest book, Justice as Message: Expressivist Foundations of International Criminal Justice, published by Oxford University Press. From the publisher: International criminal justice relies on messages, speech acts, and performative practices in order to convey social meaning. Major criminal proceedings, such as Nuremberg, Tokyo, and other post-World War II...

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10 Dec

[Keaton Kidist Allen-Gessesse is a Johannesburg-based human rights lawyer with a focus on gender and sexual rights in Africa.]   As with all crises, it is the most marginalized amongst us who have disproportionately suffered the dire consequences of this global pandemic.   The world has watched in horror as internal migrants walked thousands of kilometers across India, African-Americans died of COVID-19 at frighteningly higher death rates,...

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10 Dec

[Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane is an activist advocating for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) rights. They are also a founding member of the Cheeky Natives Podcast.] The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global challenge that has exacerbated inequalities already prevalent in all regions of the world. In March 2020, the United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and...

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09 Dec

[Justice Alfred Mavedzenge is a constitutional law academic and a legal adviser at the International Commission of Jurists, Africa Regional Programme.] Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, Zimbabwe and Eswatini had a well-established record of cracking down on freedom of expression. In both countries, criticising State authorities has in the past frequently earned human rights defenders a lengthy jail term, and at times even brutal...

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