Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response
07 Mar Why Preventive Self-Defense Violates the UN Charter
...check out Tom Ruys’ magisterial recent book “Armed Attack” and Article 51 of the UN Charter: Evolutions in Customary Law and Practice. Ruys carefully analyzes state practice and opinio juris to determine whether customary international law permits states to engage in preventive self-defense — the use of military force in response to the threat of an armed attack that is not imminent. Here is a long snippet from the book, discussing the international response to the report issued in 2004 by the UN’s “High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Security,”...19 Sep Harold Koh on International Law in Cyberspace
...for a long time taken the position that the inherent right of self-defense potentially applies against any illegal use of force. In our view, there is no threshold for a use of deadly force to qualify as an “armed attack” that may warrant a forcible response. But that is not to say that any illegal use of force triggers the right to use any and all force in response – such responses must still be necessary and of course proportionate. We recognize, on the other hand, that some other countries...04 Jun The Civil War and the Blockade of Gaza (a Response to Posner)
...to be understood as a “war” in Randall’s sense, not simply as an insurrection. The Union was thus required, in Europe’s view, to treat the CSA as a belligerent with the same rights and obligations under the laws of war that the Union itself enjoyed. The Blockade and The Prize Cases That was the European response. What about the Union’s own response? Despite the blockade, Lincoln insisted that the CSA was an insurgent, not a belligerent. But did its actions support that description? And did the Supreme Court agree with...18 Jul On Winning, Losing, and Things Inbetween: A (Preliminary) Comparative Legal Analysis of Morse v. Frederick
marijuana." [This is reminiscent of Justice Brennan's concurrence in Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser (upholding a school's punishment of a student for giving a lewd speech at a voluntary student assembly) -- Justice Brennan observed that he didn't personally view the student's speech as offensive, but he deferred to the school administrators' exercise of discretion as "not unreasonable."] I think Justice Stevens' dissenting opinion is untenable for at least two reasons. First, if the dissenting opinion had carried the day, it would have allowed judicial second-guessing of almost...08 Sep Chief Justice Roberts and Executive Power: The Clerkship Inheritance
It is well known that Judge John Roberts served as a law clerk to the late Chief Justice Rehnquist, whom Roberts is quite likely to succeed. But less attention has been paid to the actual cases Roberts may have worked on as a law clerk for Rehnquist, even less attention to the cases that Rehnquist worked on when he was law clerk to Justice Robert Jackson in 1952. It turns out that Rehnquist most likely worked on Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer , perhaps the most important case dealing...
13 Feb Symposium on Rewriting Histories of the Use of Force: Introduction
links with colonial pursuits, Siddharth Mallavarapu raises questions on international law’s present identity and purpose: can it be truly cosmopolitan, or it is forever bound to be at the service of imperial powers? Both Mohamed Helal and Siddharth Mallavarapu call on international lawyers to reconsider their relationship with international politics. Politics should not be seen as law’s ‘Other’, but it as a necessary partner to achieve its purpose (whatever that may be). The symposium then turns to the second prong of Agatha’s study. Miriam Bak McKenna discusses the affective life...31 Mar St. John’s Center for International and Comparative Law Inaugural Symposium
Tomorrow, the Center for International and Comparative Law (CICL) of St. John’s University School of Law will have its inaugural symposium. Peggy and I are CICL’s Co-Directors, and we are looking forward to what we hope will be a great kick-off. The symposium, entitled Challenges to International Law, Challenges from International Law: New Realities and the Global Order, is co-sponsored by the American Society of International Law and the St. John’s Journal of International and Comparative Law (the Center’s new online journal). Presenters will include Michael Mattler, the Minority Chief...
07 Dec COVID-19 and Africa Symposium: The Impact of COVID-19 on Human Rights in Africa
[Tim Fish Hodgson is a Legal Adviser for the International Commission of Jurists and Tanveer Jeewa is a Communications Consultant for the International Commission of Jurists.] This week Opinio Juris is hosting an online symposium on the impact of COVID-19 on human rights in Africa. Coordinated by the International Commission of Jurists’ Africa Team, the symposium hones in some key issues arising out of the global pandemic and State responses to it in Africa. Its key focus throughout is highlighting the need for States’ COVID-19 responses to be consistent with...
29 Jul Unbroken Bond: Tracing the Ties Between African and Palestinian Anti-Colonial Struggles – Symposium Introduction
weapon of war, massacres of women, men, and children, and mass displacements are characteristic of neocolonial armed conflicts in regions such as Amhara, Cabo Delgado, central Somalia, Khartoum, North Kivu, and Tigray. Our aim with this symposium is to foster a diverse dialogue that illuminates the connections between African and Palestinian liberation struggles, advancing our collective understanding and pursuit of justice and human dignity globally. The symposium is divided into two parts. Part I, which begins on 29 July 2024, opens with David Arita, who highlights the relevance of the...
16 May Symposium on Systemic Racism and Sexism in Legal Academia: The Promise of Victory
...when I pointed out that only one person in the room would ever know racism and, curiously, they left out his views. There is something surreal about being told you are not a legitimate interpreter of your experiences and realities. Such is the nature of colour-blind racism, or gender-less sexism, that its interlocutors search for reasons not to classify behaviour as racist or sexist. This pattern of de-personifying injustice, Bonilla-Silva explains, is consistent with oppression practices 3.0. Through subtle and institutional actions, we render inequalities faceless, expunging perpetrator and victim...