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Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response

01 Feb

...gaps and contradictions in the official explanations that David Ray Griffin (and other devoted scholars of high integrity) have been documenting in book after book ever since his authoritative The New Pearl Harbor in 2004 (updated in 2008).” In writing the above, Mr. Falk clearly asserted the existence of 9/11 “conspiracies,” and he unequivocally endorsed the notorious 9/11 conspiracy tract, The New Pearl Harbor as an “authoritative” book, and its author, David Ray Griffin, as a “devoted scholar of high integrity.” The main thesis of this book is that the...
01.02.11 | |

19 Jun

brilliant and eloquent weaving of Berman’s various scholarly threads. While the book concludes in part that law is “messy,” the book’s argument is quite neat, tight, and logical. Berman addresses and redresses the dominant critiques lobbed at his work over the years, showcases agility with interdisciplinary research, and demonstrates the value of legal scholarship that does not end with heavy-handed prescriptions. Like all books of this breadth, there is room for critique. Instead, in this post, I offer some broader thoughts on ways to push Berman’s outstanding work beyond its...
19.06.12 | |

20 Jan

...the ECtHR, to what Julia Dehm refers to as the ‘temporal unfitness’ of environmental human rights to ‘deliver temporal justice in the face of temporally transgressive environmental harms’ (p. 45), and the ‘temporal myopia’ of jus cogens norms (Mary H Hansel, ch. 10), to take some examples discussed in the book. At the same time, key international human rights bodies rarely confront temporality in explicit terms. How do you hope the book’s foregrounding of temporality might influence such actors? KM: The book views human rights bodies and actors as regularly...
20.01.23 | |

27 Jun

right that democratic diffusion may be better suited to achieving economic and social rights than to right clear-cut violations of civil and political ones. But that simply suggests choosing other mechanisms, whether state-to-state compliance or domestic courts. One of the strengths of the book is its ability to rise above disciplinary and ideological battles and boundaries. As should be clear from prior comments, the book is hard to categorize. Is it a book about comparative law, international law, or domestic law? Is Linos a proponent of rationalism, constructivism, or liberal...
27.06.13 | |

23 Apr

Let me join others in heaping praise on Karen Alter’s new book. It marks a growing trend of studying international law from an institutional rather than substantive perspective. My favorite aspect of the book is the lateral thinking that occurs when one examines international tribunals across disciplines. International law scholars typically labor in their own vineyards, missing opportunities for grafting new vines onto old roots. Alter steps back and examines world history from the perspective of new international courts and tribunals. It is a welcome addition. Her book is a...
23.04.14 | |

26 Jul

will be directed to it as a first stop in getting their bearings. Judges may consult it. It is a very useful book. At a time when the Chief Justice of the United States complains that most legal scholarship is entirely irrelevant to practicing lawyers (echoing complaints by others), it is pleasing to have a genuinely useful book at which to point. Hurrah for useful and comprehensive academic books! At the same time, I must admit to feeling some frustration as I delved deeper into the book, a frustration that...
26.07.11 | |

19 Jun

This post is part of our symposium on Dean Schiff Berman’s book Global Legal Pluralism. Other posts can be found in Related Posts below. This is a great book, and I am almost completely on board with the orientation here. Paul is right on the money in navigating between the territorial sovereigntists on the one hand and the cosmopolitan universalists on the other. The critique of the universalists is especially key insofar as it persuasively rebuts a standard sovereigntist fallacy (along the lines of, the sovereign state may be imperfect,...
19.06.12 | |

04 May

Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20008 Metro: Dupont Circle ASIL’s Lieber Society and the ICRC are sponsoring a discussion with ASIL member Gary D. Solis about his new book, The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law, published by ASIL Publishing Partner Cambridge University Press. ASIL hosts events such as this book discussion on an occasional basis as an informational service to bring experts on current international law topics together with those who have an interest in them. The Law of Armed Conflict: International Humanitarian Law introduces law students and...
04.05.10 | |

25 Mar

...Guzman and Pauwelyn). On almost every topic in international law—from the practical import of customary law to the repayment of “odious debt” to the laws of war—the economic perspective offers important insights into how international law actually works. At last there’s one book to introduce the basic concepts and illustrate their utility. Law students and academics, alike, will welcome Eric Posner and Alan Sykes’ Economic Foundations of International Law. This new book will likely gain most of its readership in law schools, but for scholars the book’s greatest value may...
25.03.13 | |

14 May

have been about challenging injustices on a number of fronts, and historically so, to counteract the still persistent idea that they are comparatively passive or anti-legal. I look forward to the publication of Professor Pils book on human rights lawyers in China [Eva Pils, CHINA’S HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS: ADVOCACY AND RESISTANCE (forthcoming, 2014)], and also heartily recommend Rachel Stern’s recent book on Chinese environmental activism. [Rachel Stern, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM IN CHINA: A STUDY OF POLITICAL AMBIVALENCE (2013).] Further, Professor Pil’s citation of recent crack-downs on any form of Chinese activism...
14.05.14 | |

16 Mar

I thank Professor Brown for his further application of the justificatory theory to the ICJ’s advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, another incident not covered in my book. I am glad he finds the justificatory theory useful in explaining the Court’s decision. As Professor Ku mentioned earlier this week, one test of the value of a theory is how well it explains the subject matter of the theory. Professor Brown also rightly points out that the Court caused some difficulties in the Nuclear...
16.03.12 | |

03 Sep

I want to join the rest of Opinio Juris in welcoming Tom; I have read Confronting Global Terrorsm and American Neo-Conservatism with great interest and am looking forward to commenting on it. As befits someone who, on some definitions anyway, probably counts as a neo-con, I have some disagreements with the book – starting, unsurprisingly, with the definition of neoconservative and what it means (or meant). Before getting there, however, I want to start by praising what I think is a great strength of Tom’s book – and that is...
03.09.08 | |