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Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response

23 May

in my forthcoming book Is International Law International? (OUP, 2017) where international textbooks from around the world look to US case law while US international law textbooks look to … US case law. But on a normative level, I find this statement troubling. Why look at the experience of other states? For me the answer is simple: because you might learn something. You don’t have to be bound by what you find, but it might be instructive given that other states have often faced similar issues and the United States...
23.05.17 | |

29 Jul

...through admissible evidence. That in itself is not as easily accomplished in military tribunals as people tend to think. I do thank you for the updates on the hearings though. I hope these comments help to place them in context for OJ readers unfamiliar with the military justice process. David Brennan Response... Very interesting dialogue and my short response. Under the UCMJ, there has always been the option to try an appropriate suspect under its Article 21 without resort to the military commission. However, I believe that because the UCMJ's...
29.07.09 | |

28 Jun

effect as federal law, determining their meaning as a matter of federal law “is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department,” headed by the “one supreme Court.” Ibid. Nothing in the ICJ’s structure or purpose suggests that its interpretations were intended to be binding on U. S. courts. Justice Roberts goes on to find that the ICJ’s interpretation of the VCCR is simply wrong. The dissent, written by Justice Breyer, also refused to endorse this view, and “assumed that the ICJ decisions are not binding.” Instead, the dissent...
28.06.06 | |

02 Jul

...Peace and victims’ rights The formal peace agreement, signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) in November 2016, created, among other transitional justice mechanisms, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. In accordance with its mandate, the SJP is to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for the most serious human rights violations committed during Colombia’s armed conflict. In line with its restorative character, in exchange for contributing to the truth, which should be ‘’exhaustive, complete and detailed’’, those who appear before the SJP can...
02.07.20 | |

14 Apr

[Jonathan O’Donohue is a consultant on international justice and human rights, formerly a Legal Advisor at Amnesty International. Be sure to also read Ewan Brown and William H. Wiley at Justice in Conflict.] The vacancy announcement circulated globally in August last year emphasizes the extensive skills and experience that the next International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor must bring to the role but makes no mention of the serious resource challenges the successful candidate will face when they take office. The budget of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) for...
14.04.20 | |

15 Feb

Call for Papers International Criminal Justice: A Counter-Hegemonic Project: The Berlin University Alliance is pleased to announce a call for papers for “International Criminal Justice: A Counter-Hegemonic Project?” International criminal law, since its origins, has been mired in controversies and critique inter alia on account of its understanding as victor’s justice as well as its colonial legacy. Some states have challenged the International Criminal Court and its practice on the grounds of selectivity, and the perpetuation of double standards. Additionally, critical scholarship has made a significant contribution in calling out...
15.02.21 | |

07 Mar

“Karin Calvo-Goller has undoubtedly invested much time and effort into this book, which – but for regrettably sloppy editing – might well serve as a first systematic introduction to the procedural issues confronting the ICC. What is still missing is a book that might help to resolve these issues.” It’s not the best book review one could hope for, but neither is it the worst. Undoubtedly it would have gone unnoticed by almost everyone if she had used better judgment. (Before this story, how many of you have ever read...
07.03.11 | |

07 Jul

...worked when he was Ambassador to Pakistan — as “the rugged [!]career diplomat” (p. 77).) As with any history that tries to cover as many people and events as this ambitious book does, there is much that is lost – both in terms of events and nuance – to space constraints. I don’t mean this as a criticism of the authors’ considerable achievement in covering as much as they do in the space of one book. A thorough diplomatic history of the period, even one focused only on U.S. diplomacy,...
07.07.08 | |

24 Nov

I am grateful to Professor Van Schaack for her thoughtful and considered response. It strikes me as an entirely fair criticism that – albeit in a short commentary focusing on the standards governing the use of force by governments – I neglected to explore fully issues of combatant status in non-international armed conflicts and, more interestingly, belligerent nexus issues. The methodology adopted was to avoid speculation by focusing on the facts at hand at time of writing and this limited the scope of the piece. Professor Van Schaack is correct...
24.11.10 | |

21 Apr

...Force Law, the re-named Response to Situations of Important Influence Law, and the Response to Situations of Armed Attack and Existential Threats Law. It is also reflected in some lesser remarked Cabinet Orders (such as the Government Response to Unlawful Landing of Armed Groups on Remote Islands, Cabinet Order of May 14, 2015). Without getting too deeply into the details the key point is that the overall change would appear to lower the threshold for the use of force, as that term is understood in Article 2(4) of the U.N....
21.04.16 | |

18 Oct

Patrick S. O'Donnell I'm especially interested in the Criddle and Fox-Decent paper and thus look forward to Monday's symposium, although I was surprised to see no reference (perhaps I missed it) to Larry May's excellent discussion of jus cogens norms in his recent book, Crimes Against Humanity: A Normative Account (2005). There's much in his book relevant to the article's argument. Interestingly, in another book, War Crimes and Just War (2007), May uses a fiduciary model as part of a larger discussion of the principle of humane treatment to ground...
18.10.09 | |

17 Jun

I wanted to thank all of our participants for a wonderful “insta-symposium” on Boumediene. I certainly learned a tremendous amount from our guests and greatly appreciate their willingness to participate and thoughtfully engage. I wanted to end by addressing some of the comments expressed concerning the format of these insta-symposia, especially on the issue of diversity. In organizing this event, I took pains to find experts in the field who provided diversity in terms of viewpoint (left and right), seniority (young scholars and seasoned veterans), professional expertise (historians, advocates, military...
17.06.08 | |