Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response

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...

in three separate opinions, by five justices, on both sides of the Court’s usual philosophical divide.  Joined by Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch addressed corporate liability at some length.  “Nowhere,” he wrote, does the text of the ATS “suggest that anything depends on whether the de­fendant happens to be a person or a corporation.” Reviewing the long history of tort suits against corporations, he summarized: “Causes of action in tort normally focus on wrongs and injuries, not who is responsible for them.” In a separate opinion, Justice Alito added that “if...

perpetrated by the Tatmadaw and its proxies in Rakhine State is something that should be prioritised by international justice processes. It is crucial that such crimes are not only investigated and addressed, but that such processes respect the specific needs of victims who have suffered such abuse. Based on this response from the OOP, it is in our opinion clear that the case brough BROUK would not duplicate efforts in the Hague, but instead complement and add significantly to this case. Related to this, during the hearing we also stressed...

...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,...

assistance to ensure accountability for the heinous crimes committed post the 1996 Abidjan Accord. In this period of seeming global retreat in international criminal justice in the continuum of “tribunal fatigue” in the UN system, it is useful to reflect on the remarkable desire of the Government of Sierra Leone for “credible justice” to punish adversaries, a framing which allowed the SCSL to move away from the hitherto victors’ justice archetype of ICL. The motivation for credible justice laid the foundation for the credible contributions of the SCSL to international...

...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...

...of destruction within the relevant regions. While the exercise of hard power has taken the limelight, it is noteworthy that the ongoing conflicts are not bereft of the involvement and influence of soft power.  The present discussion will delve into the significance of soft power and the correlation between such power and misinformation. Upon making several observations to that effect, the discussion will then progress to the role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in light of soft power and misinformation.  The Significance of Soft Power As defined by...

...governed only Syria’s northwestern Idlib province and surrounding areas. It assumed control of a central government that had served mainly to uphold the Assad dictatorship and had no control over broad swathes of the country.  The new authorities took significant stabilizing steps by establishing transitional constitutional frameworks, forming interim governing structures, and creating justice mechanisms, as well as securing the lifting of international sanctions and achieving positive diplomatic engagement.  They also deserve credit for providing a higher level of security and allowing a greater margin of freedom than under Assad,...

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...

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...

...to is the working conditions of interns in international criminal justice institutions, which generally allow them to work without payment. Indeed, paragraph 19 of the Interim Report states that the experts “wished to have a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing the Court and the Rome Statute system from all levels: elected officials, management, and staff, including junior staff, from both the P-levels and G-levels; from headquarters and field offices.” Absent are interns and visiting professionals, as well as environmental support staff and the people who work, presumably on contract,...

...the International Court of Justice. These cases involve largely the same defendants, even if they are substantially differentiated by their scope. These developments demonstrate that the main challenge for victims of atrocity crimes seeking accountability is increasingly not about whether a forum exists, but which forum offers the best opportunity for meaningful justice. Discussions at a two-day workshop in Brisbane between legal practitioner and civil society actors revealed how forum selection is a strategic choice made after careful consideration of several important factors. These include the legal framework, institutional capacity,...