Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response

...so rather than dwell on this point, I want to briefly segue to a larger question that has plagued me from the beginning of this debate: are we to judge proposals like those in Ben’s book in a vacuum? Or, in contrast, should we see these proposals through the lens of the many egregious missteps the Bush Administration has taken in its conduct of the fight against terrorism over the past seven years? I ask this question because right after finishing Ben’s book, I read Jane Mayer’s new book, which...

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,...

[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...

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...

...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....

were fortunate to assemble a distinguished group of contributors with expertise in international law, foreign affairs law and legal history, each of whom contributed one or more original essays to the book. The book’s organization is broadly chronological, beginning in Part I with an assessment of the Court’s use of international law from the Court’s inception to 1860. Parts II through IV cover, respectively, the years from the Civil War to the end of the nineteenth century (1861-1900); the first half of the twentieth century through World War II (1901-1945);...

...and the daily challenges of prejudice that shape the lives of women and minorities. At its heart, it’s about overcoming fear, about family, and about finding a place to belong. I’m sure it’s an amazing book. Alas, I cannot read it, having been informed by Golriz that I make an appearance. But you should read the book and tell me how amazing and inspiring it is, because I have no doubt it’s as amazing and inspiring as Golriz herself. I feel so fortunate to have been a part of her...

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:...

...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...

This is the second 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. One of the many things I like about Professor Dickinson’s book is the broad approach it takes to thinking about accountability. When I ask my law students to engage in problem-solving hypotheticals – i.e. Here’s a problem in the world, you are X individual/organization/state worried about the problem, what should we do about it? –...

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...

The United States Naval War College’s International Law Department has digitally published Volume 88 of its International Law Studies Blue Book series, entitled “Non-International Armed Conflict in the Twenty-First Century” and it may be downloaded for free from the Blue Book link on the Naval War College International Law Department’s Stockton Research Portal. Additionally, a direct link to the .pdf file of Volume 88 is here. Once printing is complete in the fall, the bound volume will be available for purchase through the Government Printing Office Bookstore. Subscribers to Lexis...