Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response
07 May Something is Not Always Better Than Nothing: Against a Narrow Threshold Justification for Humanitarian Intervention
...intervention – devoid of Security Council authorization – is legally invalid. However, as a recent post in Just Security demonstrates, though many states share this view, an increasing group now employ justificatory rhetoric in defense of the recent attacks. This rhetoric signals a potential shift. Following the NATO-led intervention in Kosovo, states and scholars vindicated the military response through universal appeals to human rights and justice. This language often remained non-specific. More recently, however, the language assumes precision. It abandons general assessments of an atrocity’s gravity and favors identification of...
05 Nov The Power and Responsibility of the EU to Protect the ICC from US Sanctions
...will reveal the actual values of the states who as a matter of law are pledged to combat atrocity and impunity. There have been some responses to the sanctions so far, and it is hard to know what is happening beyond the scenes. A 22 August 2025 letter from civil society lists reasons why the sanctions against ICC Judges and Deputy Prosecutors and previous sanctions are objectionable and collect responses from civil society, States Parties, the EU, and the UN. The European Parliament’s response is of particular note, calling on...
18 Jun Characterisation of Sexual Violence as a Women’s Issue in the Rohingya Crisis: A Response to David Eichert
...of low reporting of sexual violence against men and boys in the Rohingya context. The Female Experience of the Crisis Early focus on sexual violence against women and girls perpetuated the exclusion of men and boys from the sexual violence narrative. The 2019 report ‘We Need to Write Our Own Names’: Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in the Rohingya Humanitarian Response in Cox’s Bazar from the Women’s Refugee Commission noted the early focus on female survivors and the need to provide specialised services, Early assessments in the crisis highlighted the...07 Mar Color Me Unimpressed by Holder’s Response to Paul
execute the laws. Furthermore, principles of necessity and proportionality are part of such laws. What's all the fuss about? Certainly not international law as such. Hostage Response..."Hostage, your logic is faulty, and is in direct conflict to AG Holder’s response. Think it through again." Nothing I said was contradicted by anything contained in Holder's weasel-worded statement. My logic is that: 1) the Court's have ruled that neither the Executive nor the Congress is allowed to do anything outside the territory of the United States that is prohibited by the Constitution;...
10 Jul Too Much Too Soon? – A Snapshot of Egypt’s COVID-19 Response
[ Nora Salem is Assistant Professor and Head of the Public International Law Department at the German University in Cairo with a research focus on Women’s Human Rights in the Middle East. She has recently published an entry for the MPEPIL on Sharia Reservations to Human Rights Treaties, as well as a book on The Impact of the UN Women’s Rights Convention on Egypt’s Domestic Legislation (Brill). ] After the WHO’s characterization of COVID-19 as a pandemic on 11 March 2020, the Egyptian government rapidly adopted a variety of containment measures to...14 Oct A Response to Ramsey II — The ICTY
There are numerous problems with Mike’s response to my posts (here and here) about how the amicus brief distorts the ICTY’s jurisprudence. Before getting to them, though, it’s important to acknowledge that he and I agree about one thing: decisions of the ICTY are not primary sources of international law. That, too, is international law 101. Even here, though, the brief is problematic. The brief could have acknowledged that the ICTY has adopted knowledge as the customary mens rea of aiding and abetting but insisted that the tribunal’s analysis of...15 Sep My Exchange with Peter Margulies at Lawfare (Updated)
blogging about criminal membership and al-Bahlul at Lawfare. I wrote a response, which Lawfare’s Bobby Chesney was kind enough to post for me. Instead of reposting the lengthy exchange here, interested readers should check out the posts at Lawfare. You can find Peter’s original post here, and my response here. Feel free to weigh in below! My thanks to Peter for his response. UPDATE: Peter and I have gone one more round. His response to my response is here, and my response to his response to my response is here....16 Nov A Short Response to Ilya Somin: Does Self-Defense Mean the U.S. Can Invade and Occupy Syria?
compliance with the then-new UN Charter, and much less about re-allocating war powers under the U.S. Constitution. I should hasten to add that I am in favor of a robust military response to the Paris attacks (actually, I was in favor of a robust response before the Paris attacks too). And unlike Ilya, I think the President has broad powers under the Constitution to use military force without explicit congressional authorization. I just don’t think collective self-defense treaties like Article V are needed to authorize unilateral presidential action against ISIS....
20 Sep Comparing the International and Internationalized Models — a Response to Labuda
I had hoped not to write any more posts about the international vs. internationalized tribunal debate. I have written extensively on the topic already, and the prospects for an international tribunal grow dimmer with each passing day. Alas, Patryk Labuda’s most recent entry on the topic at Just Security requires a response: although the arguments are the same unpersuasive ones we have been hearing for the past 18 months, Labuda makes them with his usual erudition and eloquence. (I mean that sincerely.) So it is important for his version of...