Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response
17 Oct Reviewing Scott Shane’s New Book on Anwar Al-Awlaki
New York Times reporter Scott Shane recently published his book-length treatment of American Anwar Al-Awlaki – who he was, and what and why President Obama decided to order him targeted by drone strike in 2011. Not sure the book adds much for those who follow these things closely to what is already known from Shane’s own reporting and other sources, but it is certainly timely reading in light of the latest leaked administration documents regarding its process for drone strikes. My review of Shane’s book in the Washington Post is...17 May Book Discussion “Outsourcing War and Peace”: Executive Power and Foreign Affairs Contracting
This is the third day in our discussion of Professor Dickinson’s book Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs. Links to the related posts can be found below. On behalf of all of us at Opinio Juris, I’d like to thank Laura (and our guest bloggers) for joining us this week to do a discussion about her timely new book, Outsourcing War & Peace. As someone who teaches National Security Law and Contracts, I was particularly struck by an observation she made early...24 Jun Linos Book Symposium: Comments by Larry Helfer
[Larry Helfer is the Harry R. Chadwick, Sr. Professor of Law Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law] Katerina Linos has written an audacious and analytically rigorous study of how health and family policies spread over time across industrialized countries. She deftly synthesizes a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research methods into a brilliantly-conceived research design that analyzes the mechanisms by which such policies disperse across borders. The book’s core findings—that foreign and international models influence domestic policy adoption via politicians’ appeals to skeptical voters who view...18 May Book Discussion “Outsourcing War and Peace”: The Efficient Regulation of Private Security Contractors
to be faced. The problem is not the traditional one of agent-principal asymmetry of information, but rather symmetry of uncertainty: neither the private security contractor nor the government actor truly knows what kinds of situations will arise or the best response. Since this often describes armed conflict, post conflict, or insecure situations in which private security contractors often operate, the ordinary response in the law to such symmetric uncertainty is not to rely on contract at all – or, at most, to use the form of a contract to memorialize...18 Feb New Book: Lewis, The Birth of the New Justice
I rarely get excited about a new book before I’ve read it — but I’m excited about this one, Mark Lewis’s The Birth of the New Justice: The Internationalization of Crime and Punishment, 1919-1950. Here is OUP’s description: The Birth of the New Justice is a history of the attempts to instate ad hoc and permanent international criminal courts and new international criminal laws from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Cold War. The purpose of these courts was to repress aggressive war, war crimes,...10 Jul On Paddington Bear and “Darkest Britain”: Rethinking Peru-UK Relations
...a result of debts guaranteed by both products, Peru was forced to hand over to England the administration of its railroads; that is, the very key to the exploitation of its resources”. This is what Peruvians know about their ties with the UK. This is the history that young Peruvians read about in school, not books about a bear that likes marmalade sandwiches and his endearingly odd clumsiness. Mariátegui’s quote above, in fact, comes from a book frequently glossed with the phrase “the book that every Peruvian must read”. If...26 Apr Events and Announcements: 25 April 2020
...to its regular offerings of high-level scholarly articles and legal development columns. For this purpose, we are currently looking for a Book Review Editor with at least 3 years of post-PhD experience (or equivalent) and, preferably, with previous editorial expertise. Women and non-Western scholars are particularly encouraged to apply. The Book Review Editor will be asked to evaluate incoming book reviews, as well as to identify recently published titles suitable for review and suitable reviewers. The Book Review Editor will work closely with the co-Editors-in-Chief (Prof. Régis Bismuth and Prof....01 Oct Gary Bass Reviews John Witt’s ‘Lincoln’s Code’ in the NYT Sunday Book Review
John Witt’s magisterial new book, Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History, appeared a few weeks ago, and Gary Bass has an enthusiastic review of it in yesterday’s New York Times Sunday Book Review. I am only about half-way through it, but Bass’ enthusiasm is entirely justified – it is a fabulous book and one that I think merits attention world-wide. Bass’ review-essay is also well worth the read: Abraham Lincoln’s administration published a new fighting code for Union soldiers in 1863, which diffused far beyond American shores:...
20 Oct Ending Book Famine and Vaccine Inequality: What a South African Court’s Decision on Copyright Law has to do with COVID-19 Vaccine Access
...persons with disabilities throughout the world in accessing reading materials. Without equal access to reading material, persons with disabilities simply cannot fully enjoy a range of rights on an equal basis with others, including the rights to education, participation in cultural life and freedom of expression. The phrase “book famine” is a term used even by the World Intellectual Property Organization itself, to describe the devastating dearth of reading materials available to persons with disabilities throughout the world. In the Global South, as few as one percent of all books...