Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response

level. Firstly, the article, in my view correctly, distinguishes the rule of law from “the existence of, and compliance with, substantive international law obligations” (p. 15). On that ground, it does not include “all human rights in the rule of law”. Later on, however, the definition of international rule of law provided does include “access to justice to protect human rights”. Why only access to justice to protect some substantive rights and not others? Does this definition not imply, contrary to the author’s earlier statements, that human rights are part...

...the Wall, the International Court of Justice stated bluntly that “the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international law.” (at para. 120) The ICC’s Jurisdiction over the Settlement Enterprise As the scope of the territorial jurisdiction of the ICC is the subject of other entries in this Symposium, and will soon be addressed at length by victims, States, and amicus curiae in response to the Request, this aspect of the Court’s jurisdiction will not be explored here. In any event,...

[Priya Pillai is a lawyer and international law specialist. She has worked at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) headquarters in Geneva, at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and with various civil society organizations on implementation of international law.] This is an opportune moment to examine the representation of women (in an inclusive sense) in expert bodies or institutions. The basis for this symposium is the recent report by the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on the current levels...

appropriately reflected in law. Yet Dworkin’s view seems too expansive insofar as it equates the rule of law with justice generally, at least to the extent that the latter bears on law. This is because a venerable tradition of thought – one that includes Grotius, Hume, Kant and Mill – construes the concept of justice as picking out just those moral duties that have associated rights. Hence, the motivation to adopt a ‘thin’ account of the rule of law, one centring on a series of formal and procedural requirements, e.g....

This week, we are hosting a symposium on Defining the International Rule of Law: Defying Gravity?, (free access for six months) the latest article from Robert McCorquodale, the Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, Professor of International Law and Human Rights, University of Nottingham, and Barrister, Brick Court Chambers, London. The article was recently published in the International and Comparative Law Quarterly. The article’s abstract: This article aims to offer a definition of the international rule of law. It does this through clarifying the core objectives...

miss the symposium post at Justice in Conflict by Kate Gibson.] The ICC Prosecutor is first and foremost a leader, who needs to stimulate a work culture that empowers personnel in a safe and supportive environment – so that they can investigate and prosecute with excellence. Not only must the next ICC Prosecutor effectively tackle all forms of misconduct, they must also have a clean record. In December, the ICC Staff Union Council called on States Parties to give full meaning to the provisions on high moral character of elected...

rule of law is required in the first place. I will not revisit the thin/thick (or formal/substantive) debates here, but would align myself with Raz’s argument that a “thin” conception does not relegate one to the arbitrary exercise of power in a rule by law state. At the domestic level, this battle is played out when McCorquodale deploys Tom Bingham’s stirring response to Raz — though it is a response essentially based on a definitional shift that the rule of law means the rule of good law (pp.283-284). At the...

law of armed conflict for those less familiar with this branch of international law. I want to focus on the book’s discussion of human enhancement. Broadly speaking, enhancement involves biomedical interventions to improve some human capability beyond what is necessary to achieve or sustain health. Or, as it is sometimes succinctly put, enhancement makes people better than well. Even in the specialised military context, enhancement encompasses a range of technologies, which this book covers in three separate chapters, written by three different authors. The first, Chapter 7 by Ioana Maria...

Robert Howse is the Lloyd C. Nelson Professor of International Law at New York University School of Law. Joanna Langille is a 2011 graduate of New York University Law School.] This post is part of the Yale Journal of International Law Volume 37, Issue 2 symposium. Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. Our article examines the extent to which countries can use animal welfare concerns to justify placing restrictions on international trade, under the law of the World Trade Organization (WTO). We argue...

terms of the four objectives of a rule of law: to uphold legal order and stability; to provide equality of application of law; to enable access to justice for human rights; and to settle disputes before an independent legal body. I explain in the article that these objectives can be found in the international system. I include access to justice for human rights deliberately, because a rule of law without this justice element is a rule by laws and not a rule of law. The protection of human rights should...

[Christopher A. Whytock is a Professor of Law and Political Science, University of California, Irvine, School of Law.] This post is part of the HILJ Online Symposium: Volumes 54(2) & 55(1). Other posts in this series can be found in the related posts below. In Ending Judgment Arbitrage, Professor Shill claims that non-U.S. plaintiffs “routinely” practice a three-step strategy called “judgment arbitrage”: (1) selection of a foreign country to litigate the merits and obtain a favorable judgment; (2) selection of a “receptive” U.S. state to obtain judicial recognition of the...

...injustice; violence and morality; nationality and citizenship; self-determination and legitimacy, responsibility and exceptionalism”. It explained that the conference and the book of its proceedings would be dedicated to Henry Cattan (1906-1992), a leading Palestinian international lawyer.  When the call for papers was released, the working definition of antisemitism had yet to be adopted by the IHRA, nor by any British university. UK Lawyers for Israel did not exist. But this made little difference to the firestorm that followed (see here, here, and here). A petition organised by the Zionist Federation...