Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response
24 Jan McGuinness on Justice Blackmun’s Internationalism
Our own Peggy McGuiness has just published an article in the Missouri Law Review on “The Internationalism of Justice Blackmun.” When an international scholar thinks of Justice Blackmun a few cases quickly come to mind: Mitsubishi v. Soler, Aerospatiale, Sale, Goldwater, etc. But as McGuiness outlines, his impact on internationalism is far greater than a few odd cases. It also includes nurturing the likes of Harold Koh and Donald Donovan, and authoring a seminal article that has proved instrumental in launching the current rage of reliance on foreign authority in...
26 May 40 years’ Worth of Footage from Syria Alone: Global Documentation Requires Commensurate Global Justice
...What about when key infrastructure like bridges are systematically destroyed, thereby impeding the delivery of food, humanitarian aid, and medical supplies? Again, larger scale, archive-wide investigations can better encompass the full scope, impact, and experience of such documented harms. The current global justice reality simply is not adequate to meet the demands implicit in the extensive quantity — and quality — of content that documenters continue to share open source, from a variety of places and contexts. In today’s justice dynamic, civil society has already stepped up in unprecedented ways,...
08 Dec Symposium on Forensic and Counter-Forensic Approaches to International Law: The New Geometries of International Law – Deploying Self-Reflexive Inquiry to Re-Build the Discipline
...with international justice as a lived reality and not just a mere set of rules. ’Playfulness’ in this context is not the opposite of ‘seriousness’ and is not to be interpreted as a way of bypassing the gravity of the problems addressed by the field of international justice. Quite the opposite, the idea is to utilize the urgency of the current polycrisis to question the solidity of some of the outdated structures in the edifice of international justice and the inability or unwillingness of the actors in the field to...
29 Jul A Future Crimes Against Humanity Convention and Asia: A New Tool for Accountability
[Aakash Chandran (X: @ChandranAakash is the Legal Advocacy and Communications Manager at Asia Justice Coalition.] The international community is currently navigating a turbulent phase marked by armed conflicts, aggression, and manifest violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law. The situation in South, Southeast, and East Asia also continues to present alarming developments, including the escalating situation in Myanmar, exacerbated by the absence of concerted international action. The entrenched impunity in Sri Lanka concerning the civil war has left thousands of victims of atrocity crimes without access to justice,...27 Aug Truce Reached in Uganda: The ICC’s Dilemma Continues
should be clear as to the nature of social and political justice and how these relate, say, to criminal justice. Perhaps forgoing retributive justice has a corrosive effect on social and political justice (or even 'legal' or 'ethical' justice; I'm assuming that, in the end, there's more than family resemblance to the various kinds of justice). In any case, I'm grateful to Professor Weinberger for making me think more carefully about what is at stake here. Seamus I should have also said, in fairness to Professor Ku, that we're still...
07 Feb Overfocusing on Prosecuting Aggression Risks Impunity for Ukraine’s Swelling Dock of Alleged War Criminals
case is actively trying) only and handful of the most responsible perpetrators in their respective jurisdictional contexts. None of the over 121,000 alleged war criminals awaiting prosecution in Ukrainian prisons are accused of being such ‘most responsible’ perpetrators. Arguing in favor of a High War Crimes Court, PILPG experts posit that an extraordinary national tribunal can close the accountability gap for international crimes in Ukraine by “provid[ing] an important additional venue for prosecuting the large number of mid-level perpetrators who might otherwise escape justice.” Discourse on international justice mechanisms for...15 May Guest Post: The Anders Kompass Case–A Moment of Opportunity for the UN Internal Justice System
...justice system where cases often took years to resolve. In 2009, after decades of effort, the UN comprehensively redesigned its internal justice system, creating the UNDT and the UNAT. For a discussion, see an earlier article by the author here. So, is the redesigned system working? The Kompass case is a prime example that while much more needs to be done, progress has been made. What did the UNDT decide in the Kompass case? Bearing in mind that the merits of the case have not yet been determined, on the...
17 Apr Strategies for Appealing the Afghanistan Decision
don’t see how the judges could in good conscience arrogate to themselves the final say over whether the OTP can investigate horrific crimes in Afghanistan involving tens of thousands of victims (and perpetrators from the most powerful state in the world). Whether the PTC took the correct approach to the interests of justice is precisely the kind of legal issue that screams out for appellate consideration — particularly in light of the fact that the PTC gave the OTP absolutely no warning that the interests of justice would determine the...
09 Apr Missing: Asian Women on the International Bench
on research I conducted as part of the Asia Justice Coalition’s Women in International Justice & Accountability (WIJA) project. The WIJA project aims to empower women leaders in Asia and develop their leadership in international law. I examined the gender and regional representation of judges at four international courts and tribunals. I focused on judges because they optically hold the most important role in courts and are the ‘face’ of judicial work. Given their impartial and representative mandate, judges should ideally represent the global character of international justice. Practically, data...
23 May Environmental Justice at the JEP and Indigenous Worldviews: A Mismatch?
regions, home of the Nasa indigenous people. This marked the first time the JEP charged for environmental harms, expressly stating that “transitional justice is also environmental justice”. Right after the press conference, the two main Nasa indigenous organisations of the Cauca (ACIN, CRIC) convened an internal emergency meeting with Nasa indigenous authorities to discuss this decision. During the meeting, Nasa representatives heavily criticized the decision for having discarded their cosmovision and own laws (derecho proprio) and reduced Uma Kiwe, their Mother Earth, to natural resources. For the Nasa people, territory...