Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response
22 Jul The Gambia v. Myanmar – International Court of Justice Judgment on Preliminary Objections
The International Court of Justice has just read its judgment on preliminary objections in the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (The Gambia v. Myanmar). This is a brief note based on the reading of the judgment, based on my twitter thread ‘live tweeting’ the judgment and does not delve into the details of the legal argumentation – it is meant to give a quick overview of the judgment of the court. The case was initiated by The Gambia in November 2019...
07 Feb Symposium on Fairness, Equality, and Diversity in Open Source Investigations: The Case To (Re)new Community of Practice for the Open Source Investigative Field
perpetrators across the globe, a wealth of previously elusive information has opened up to bolster justice and truth-telling efforts, in turn spurring the growth of the open source investigative field over the last decade. However, the existing community of practice in this field is non-functioning. The status quo is for outsider researchers to form an echo chamber, mirroring, contributing to, and entrenching harms already thriving in the documentation-to-justice pipeline. Instead, how do we take good intention and turn it into truly good practice? The issues discussed below demonstrate flawed approaches...16 May Justice Kennedy: "The (Legal) World is Flat"
the other branches have rejected) to interpret the U.S. Constitution. This is new stuff, and I don’t think (based on his own use of it in Lawrence and Roper) that Justice Kennedy himself has come up with an explanation of why it is so important to cite international treaties when interpreting the Constitution. No justice has offered a particularly impressive defense of this practice (see discussion of Ginsburg here and Breyer here). It’s too bad that the Justice can’t do better than simply telling us that the “world is flat”....26 Jun Justice Breyer Rejects Pragmatic Comparativism in Heller
No surprise, the Supreme Court in the Second Amendment case of D.C. v. Heller refrains from any discussion of contemporary foreign or international laws or practices. The Court, per Justice Scalia, does discuss historical comparativism at some length (pp. 19-22), and Justice Stevens in dissent challenges this historical reading (pp. 27-31). But the really interesting part of Heller regarding comparativism comes from Justice Breyer’s dissent. He examines one amicus brief‘s pragmatic arguments that look to comparative experiences to suggest tighter gun control laws lead to more murders. (See my post...
12 Oct Reflecting with Practitioners: How is Latin America (Still and Again) Paving the Way for the Promotion of Accountability for Sexual Violence in Conflict Before National Courts?
In past decades, Latin American countries witnessed violent conflict and serious human rights abuses at the hands of state and non-state actors. In these contexts, conflict-related sexual violence was widespread, perpetrated in order to advance military goals and as a tactic of repression against political opponents and communities. But as the region has grappled with the past through efforts toward justice and accountability, there have been positive legal developments that warrant attention and should inform policy, judicial, and programmatic responses elsewhere. Taking stock of these developments, four leading experts––Daniela Kravetz,...
16 Feb On Being Disappointed at Judge Julia Sebutinde’s Dissent
...and of global affairs more broadly is both essentialist and double standard-y. However, feminist hope is (fortunately) stubborn. Just because the panaceas of liberal international justice might fall short, this does not mean we lack inspiration and opportunities for crafting other (more solidarious) ways of doing justice. As explored by others before me, these more solidarious ways can take the form of centring the process of doing international justice on active listening and on valuing the experience of those most affected by structural violence and injustices worldwide (such as people’s...
18 Aug Forced Sterilisation and Transformative Reparations: The Inter‑American Court’s Seminal Judgment in Ramos Durand et al. v. Peru
excluded from Peru’s transitional justice mechanisms when the country transitioned back to democracy, leaving a major chapter of state policy unnamed and unaddressed. Indeed, Peru’s transitional justice architecture, built around the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) and a subsequent Integral Reparations Plan (PIR), long omitted forced sterilisation, an exclusion that discriminated against victims of reproductive violence and hindered access to justice, truth and reparation. Although the case of Mestanza was filed before the CIDH on June 15, 1999, explicitly alleging a massive, compulsory and systematic state policy that targeted poor,...
15 Sep Transitional Justice Symposium: Reflections on the Transitional Moment
[ Martin Böhmer is a Professor of Law at the University of Palermo.] Jacob and the angel wrestling and tying. The intriguing cover of Teitel’s book sets the tone. An extraordinary moment of struggle between two who are bound together (tied, that is) but who cannot trust each other. In Bo Burt’s reading God wants His people to love and worship Him, Jacob (like his father and grandfather) wants Him to fulfill His promise. The tie produces unescapable dialogue. Transitional Justice (TJ) analyzes such moments, the moments were antagonists find...