Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response
23 Apr Alter Book Symposium: Welcome to the New World of Comparative International Courts
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...
19 Aug Symposium on Informers Up Close: Informers in a Rearview Mirror – Impressions and Parallels from Drumbl and Holá’s Book
of trust. Parting Words Superbly researched and beautifully crafted, Drumbl and Holá’s book is a major event in the critical transitional justice scholarship. It must be widely read and will be unmissable for every transitional justice scholar and policy-maker. The book brushes against the grain of comfortable, reductive narratives which hold sway in most transitional societies, retelling secret service collaborators as a few ‘rotten apples’ to be excised from the healthy body of an otherwise innocent nation (the ‘evil traitors’ versus ‘heroic resisters’ binary). Drumbl and Holá deliver a nuanced...14 May NYU JILP Symposium: Response to the Commentary on Property Rights, Labor Rights and Democratization
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...16 Mar Cheng Book Roundtable: When Should a Court Not Decide (A Response to Professor Brown)
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...03 Sep Strategic Visions in Responding to Terror, and ‘Meta-Methodology’
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...29 Jul Push a Square Peg into a Round Hole, or Build Another Hole?
First, sincere thanks to the OpinioJuris team for inviting me to share my thoughts on Ben Wittes exceptional book; and thanks to Ben for such a well researched, well written, and provocative work. My initial reaction to the book was that Ben has hit the proverbial nail on the head in terms of defining the policy challenge surrounding how the United States should or must frame the response to the threat of transnational terrorism. More specifically, Ben clearly exposes how efforts to squeeze the response to this threat into existing...
17 Mar Hamster in a Wheel: International Law, Crisis, Exceptionalism, Whataboutery, Speaking Truth to Power, and Sociopathic, Racist Gaslighting
...of double standards and the different treatment of seemingly like situations. Nor is it the case that all those others who do this are doing so to justify Russia’s actions. Some are asking ‘what about’, not to justify Russia’s actions, but actually, the reverse – to say, in the context of an assumption that what Russia is doing is wrong, to ask why, when violations of international law of the same or a similar nature happen elsewhere, there is not the same response- a response they would welcome – by...
04 Jul The Global Hawk Incident: Self-Defense against Aerial Incursions – Reflections on the Applicable Law
...force. For the sake of analysis, let’s assume that the Global Hawk did indeed enter Iranian airspace. That would, undoubtedly, constitute a violation of Iranian sovereignty. It could also amount to an unlawful use of force. However, as Michael Schmitt explained on Just Security, states are not permitted to use force in response to any breach of sovereignty, nor are states allowed to use force in response to every unlawful use of force. In the absence of U.N. Security Council authorization and except in cases of intervention by invitation, states...
20 Jul A Special Issue in the Journal of International Criminal Justice on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Domestic Accountability: Why Now and Why You (and Governments) Should Read It
stressed the importance of ending impunity “as part of a comprehensive approach to seeking sustainable peace, justice, truth and national reconciliation.” This resolution affirmed the primary responsibility of States to investigate and prosecute crimes occurred in their jurisdictions, reflecting the recently adopted principle of complementarity, underlying the ICC regime. Indeed, this approach represented a shift in expectations: from a period where the implementation of international humanitarian, criminal and human rights law was led by international institutions to a time where national systems of justice are increasingly expected to provide more...
17 Jul State Responsibility for Acts of Torture: Netherlands/Canada v Syria at the International Court of Justice
Weapons (CW) as form of torture, by addressing suffocation caused by this kind of weapons as severe pain and suffering (para.2). While it is not further clarified in the Application, the reference to CW as torture and, subsequently, the fact that the Court will address the CW is significant given the extensive use of this type of prohibited weapons by the Syrian regime and the lack of justice responses to address this crime. The applicants requested the court to declare Syria’s violations of the CAT and that Syria must cease...