Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response
04 May Quick Thoughts on UBL’s Killing — and a Response to Lewis
...support characterizing this as a military operation conducted under the laws of armed conflict and not a law enforcement operation. This is not necessarily wrong, but it is at least misleading. Although how a state chooses to respond to a threat from a non-state actor is relevant to whether hostilities rise to the level of armed conflict, the form of the response — military or law-enforcement — does not determine whether an armed conflict exists. It is simply one factor, the importance of which is debatable. States do not get...
21 Jan Farewell to Frank Dutton – Justice Warrior and Truth Seeker.
On 19 January 2022, the legendary investigator and justice warrior Frank Kennan Dutton passed away at the age of 72. I was introduced to Frank by Howard Varney while we were all working on seeking justice for anti-apartheid activist Nokuthula Simelane who was tortured and murdered by apartheid era police. Naturally, Frank’s reputation preceded him and I had heard awe-inspiring things about him but I was immediately struck by his humility, kindness and truly down to earth nature. Frank had a wonderful ability to graciously dispense his wisdom whilst affirming and...
01 Oct Prosecuting Putin: Creation of a Special Tribunal for Russian Aggression
...infrastructure, and cultural property. Russian troops have committed torture, wilful killing, rape, and sexual violence against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war. Russia has forcibly transferred Ukrainian children to Russia, in direct violation of Article 2e of the Genocide Convention. Ukraine is fighting a defensive war against aggression combined with Russian genocide. The Kremlin’s stated intent has been to destroy the Ukrainian nation and ethnicity. In response to Russia’s crimes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined a proposal for peace on October 11, 2022. He highlighted the need to promote justice...
14 May How did the Israeli Supreme Court Legitimise Starvation as a Weapon of War? An Autopsy of a Ruling (Part 1)
...On March 27, 2025, over a year after it had been submitted and over three weeks after Israel imposed a complete blockade on the Gaza Strip, three Supreme Court justices unanimously rejected the petition. Chief Justice Yitzhak Amit, who is associated with the Court’s liberal camp, authored the leading opinion, and deputy Chief Justice Noam Solberg and Justice David Mintz, both associated with the conservative camp, concurred and added a few observations. An autopsy of the ruling lays bare how the Court deployed three major strategies to legitimise Israel’s deprivation...
21 Jul Duterte’s Arrest, the ICC, and the Politics of Accountability
...moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice What This Means for International Justice Duterte’s arrest represents a rare victory for the ICC, but it also highlights the fragility of international justice. The court relies on a delicate balance of legal authority and political will. The system worked in this case, but it did so not because of the ICC’s inherent strength but because the Philippine government saw an advantage in cooperating. At the same time, the prolonged delay, and effective failure, in prosecuting Duterte within the Philippine judiciary...
19 Feb Justice for the Yazidis in the Ishaq Case by the Stockholm District Court – Part II
...well as national courts, including others that operate under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Such qualitative outcomes are the harvest of seeds which have been planted across the international criminal justice ecosystem and include: the dedication of curious and skilful prosecutors that do not shy away from looking across jurisdiction or collaborating with investigative mechanisms, such as IIIM-Syria and UNITAD (p.35-36). The consideration of the work of the Syria COI, Yazda and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and other European criminal justice authorities successfully facilitated through Eurojust contributed...
28 Jan Centering Survivors: The Imperative for Inclusive Justice in Crimes Against Humanity Treaty Negotiations
...need compensation, resources, and sustained support so we are not forced to live in constant fear and anxiety. Most importantly, we need to be centered in the design and implementation of justice and accountability for ourselves and our communities. Often, people speak of us when they talk about justice, but we are agents, not objects. We can speak for ourselves, and that’s why our presence and meaningful participation are essential to the legitimacy of such processes. We, civil society participants—including survivor groups, activists, lawyers, academics, and practitioners—ground legal processes, such...01 Mar “Future Perspectives on International Criminal Justice” Published
of humanitarian law – Antonio Cassese and the creation of the customary law of non-international armed conflict Tamás Hoffmann; 5. The international criminal legal process: towards a realistic model of international criminal law in action Christoph Burchard. Part II. Theorizing International Criminal Justice: 6. The two liberalisms of international criminal law Darryl Robinson; 7. International criminal law at the crossroads: from ad hoc imposition to a treaty-based universal system Kai Ambos; 8. In search of the ‘vertical’: towards an institutional theory of international criminal justice’s core Frédéric Mégret. Part III....31 Dec The NDAA: The Good, the Bad, and the Laws of War–Part II
...since “it is the firm position of the Obama Administration that suspected terrorists arrested inside the United States will—in keeping with long-standing tradition—be processed through our Article III courts, as they should be,” and that “when it comes to U.S. citizens involved in terrorist-related activity, whether they are captured overseas or at home, we will prosecute them in our criminal justice system.” As the President reiterated today, “my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with...
19 Mar What Lessons Can We Learn from the Prosecutor’s Election? Part I
52-53, 63, 173, and 183), not commissioned by the Assembly of States Parties, then resounded on deaf ears. The veil of silence around these issues was yet further penetrated through the Twitter campaign conducted by Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice and Atlas, “Why I didn’t report”, which ran from 11 to 22 January 2021. During that campaign anonymous women from anonymous organizations engaged in the field of international criminal justice explained why they didn’t report allegations of misconduct against presumably more senior officials in the work place. These anonymous disclosures,...