Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response
30 Jul Gabor Rona on Targeted Killing: A Response to Michael Lewis
...the U.S. taking liberties with the principle of distinction will cause the next Srebrenica or that better U.S. targeting behavior will prevent it. But if the US is, indeed, the indispensable nation for promotion of international human rights, then just consider how Abu Ghraib and enhanced interrogation techniques affected the ability of the U.S. to complain about torture elsewhere and how that disability affects the will and ability of the international community to bring torturers to justice. Finally, Mike makes an interesting point in speculating that what people really object...07 Jul A Response to Roger Alford
Thanks to Roger Alford, Matt Waxman, Ken Anderson, Chris Borgen, and Peggy McGuiness for their interesting posts today. I wanted to respond to Roger’s very astute observation about 1993. We do write about the disaster on the national security side, but as he notes, Clinton also got NAFTA passed that year, which was a major achievement. It was really striking to us as we did the research for the book the difference between Clinton on economics and Clinton on national security in that first year. He was so confident of...17 Feb Clear Skies and Kyoto: A Response
...coal-burning power plants . The administration bases its opposition to NSR primarily on the fact that the program has negatively affected energy projects, but Christine Todd Whitman (whom, Easterbrook also incorrectly cites in his favor) revealed in her new book It’s My Party, Too that “at one meeting, after hearing one person after another lay blame for our energy crisis squarely at EPA’s door, I asked them to prepare a list of energy projects that were being delayed because of environmental laws and regulations. Nobody ever did.” Fourth, cap-and-trade systems...30 Jan Investment Protection in Extraordinary Times: A Response
The recent article by Burke-White and von Staden raises critical and timely issues about international economic law and treaty interpretation. The paper acknowledges challenges posed to the institutional legitimacy of investment treaty dispute resolution (which I have written about elsewhere) that are caused by different tribunals coming to different interpretations of the same or similar treaty provisions. It also considers the difficulties for international law when tribunals interpret treaty provisions in a manner that negates agreed areas of state responsibility and instead shifts to an analysis based...17 Apr Defining Incitement to Genocide: A Response to Susan Benesch
[Gregory Gordon is Professor of Law, University of North Dakota School of Law.] I would like to begin by thanking Opinio Juris for inviting us to have this important discussion here about the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide. I would also like to congratulate Susan Benesch on her excellent article regarding this verbal harbinger and prerequisite of mass atrocity. Professor Benesch provides a much needed exploration of the more complex facets of incitement that will afford jurists, advocates, and would-be offenders greater clarity...17 Apr Vile Crime or Inalienable Right: A Response to Susan Benesch
...study of nationalism. (See especially Chapter 5 of my book, THE PARADOXES OF NATIONALISM: THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND ITS MEANING FOR CONTEMPORARY NATION BUILDING). My sense is that Susan talks about the sociological foundations of genocide because she wants to convince skeptical readers that criminalizing incitement should not be out of the question, even though it involves criminalizing speech. Susan points out that U.S. law criminalizes speech that is “likely to lead to imminent lawless action” (495). However, she finds this test too narrow in the context of genocide, because...09 Jul A Response to Eugene
First of all, welcome back! I always enjoy your contributions to OJ (and your scholarship generally), even when I disagree with you. So I hope you won’t think me too ungracious a host if I raise some (pointed) questions about your most recent post. I would be genuinely curious to hear your responses. I am, as I have pointed out ad nauseum, not an expert on international human rights law. So I’ll limit my comments to whether any of the actions you discuss would qualify either as genocide or as...
20 Dec On Forcing Civilians to Remain in Hostile Zones: The Prohibition of Shielding and the Corresponding Obligations of an Attacking Party Under International Humanitarian Law
[Chris McQuade is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Law at the University of Portsmouth. He holds a PhD in International Law from the University of Sussex and researches in the fields of public international law, international humanitarian law and international and domestic human rights law.] In response to the October 7 attack by Hamas, the Israeli army has engaged in an intense military campaign in the Gaza strip over the past three months. As the campaign has escalated in its ferocity, so too has criticism of the Israeli response (among...17 Apr Defining Incitement to Genocide: A Response to Susan Benesch
[Mark Drumbl is the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law.] Susan Benesch’s VJIL article is timely, thoughtful, and important. She insightfully sets out the catalytic relationship between hate propaganda and genocide. Her comparison of the methodological similarities between the Rwandan and Nazi German contexts is instructive. The mainstreaming of hate-mongering is a condition precedent for genocide to become truly massive. Consequently, if the criminal law could shut down hate-mongering before actual genocide – for example, by incapacitating the conflict...