Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response

in other contexts where the ICC has intervened, that someone is working towards justice; that someone is on the side of those who suffer atrocity and political violence. Martin Luther King famously said that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” International criminal justice isn’t available anywhere or everywhere. But it could be on offer to at least some victims and survivors in Israel and Palestine. Thwarting it, frustrating it, and opposing it entrenches selective justice, undermines the ICC, and shackles international criminal justice to its most limited self....

liberalization, freedom, and so on, we can see ways in which the aegis of jus post bellum overlaps with the aims of transitional justice. Justice is not conceived as strictly punishment oriented, as assumed in the legalist paradigm. Nor is it confined to restitution and the restorative dimension implied by the earlier understanding of post-war justice. Indeed, it could well take in the full context and modalities of transition and transformation. The issue is being reconceived in terms of justice as security. Within the evolving framework, there is a concern...

The following is a guest-post by Mark Kersten. Mark is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the London School of Economics and author of the (excellent) blog Justice in Conflict. His research examines the nexus of conflict resolution and the pursuit of international criminal justice. Trying to Get to the Bottom of the “Peace versus Justice” Debate in Libya There are valid concerns and tensions which arise from pursuing justice in the midst of ongoing and unresolved conflict. The development of international criminal law has seen the transformation of...

country that is, according to the International Commission of Inquiry on Libya, “devoid of independent institutions, a civil society, and a judiciary able to provide justice and redress.” At this critical juncture, the availability of the ICC— an internationally recognized body—to promulgate principles of global importance is vital to fostering universal justice principles and steering Libya away from victor’s justice. So how can the ICC inspire the criminal justice reform process within Libya? Continued monitoring by international entities can be a catalyst for reforms of national justice systems, encouraging states...

Sierra Leone (SCSL) and the forthcoming law review special issue on the book, would not have been possible. I am indebted to them all. In the remainder of this post, allow me to briefly introduce the main chapters and arguments in the book which will be debated in the series of posts that will follow over the next week or so. In a final post, at the end of the present symposium, I will return to respond to the main comments and criticisms of the book. It must be common...

a lengthier reply.  Dr. McDougall acknowledges that the book “makes a compelling case for why the veto should not be used in the face of unfolding mass atrocities,” while not always agreeing with the reasoning in Chapter 4 of the book.   Some of Dr. McDougall’s statements may be based on misinterpretations of what is in the book and therefore simply warrant correction:  (a) the book is not aimed at “Council actions aimed at responding to armed violence around the globe”; rather, it examines Council actions (or inaction) when there...

and backed by many experts, institutions, and governments, and supported by a wide range of domestic and international actors, can create the necessary impetus and synergies to ensure a more representative international justice system.  The excellent contributions made during this symposium highlight five areas where the AC Report can help catalyze change in the gender composition of international justice: information, networks, pledges, legal standards, and institutional changes.  Information, knowledge, and debate Shattering the glass ceiling requires more timely information, analysis, and targeted discussions around gender representation in international bodies, both...

[ Alexandra Lily Kather  (she/they) is a lawyer, international justice practitioner & co-founder of the Emergent Justice Collective (EJC). Their work focuses, inter alia, on strategically addressing the intersectional dimensions of core international crimes. Angela Mudukuti  is a member of Opinio Juris and a human rights lawyer specialised in international criminal law. She has worked with a variety of international organsisations including the International Criminal Court and Human Rights Watch.] On 4 February 2021, the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s Trial Chamber IX found Dominic Ongwen, a former commander in the Lord Resistance...

trauma from their experiences.  The Ongwen decision and the efforts at justice and reparations for those most affected is deeply intricate and complex, largely due to the widespread and severe nature of the atrocities, the diverse needs of survivors, the interaction between national and international accountability processes, and the sluggish advancement in translating transitional justice policy objectives into concrete legislation.  The reparations decision and ongoing debates on advancing the transitional justice process in Uganda have brought interesting yet complex issues to the fore, not all of which can be resolved...

institutions rather than systemic change in the institutional set up and mindset, especially in leadership. Suggesting these same museums as spaces of transitional justice therefore holds the danger to perpetuate that situation and obscure pervading asymmetric relationships stemming from the colonial encounter and structures of coloniality. Moreover, it unfairly adds to these institutions the label of justice and legitimacy that comes with acting as a transitional justice mechanism. Reading this book offered a range of impressions: from confirming some intuitions based on one’s own practical work on legal grounds for...

to the author: states (mostly African states) that have so far engaged with the ICC did so not for the purpose of promoting justice for crimes under the court’s jurisdiction, but to advance their political and security interests. Interestingly, Oumar Bâ claims that the book’s findings and conclusions are ‘generalizable and useful to examine the behavior of other states in and outside of the African continent’ (p.39), which raises the following question: what does ‘States of justice’ tell us about future interactions with the proposed African Court of Justice and...

case, the European Court has consistently held that the European Convention is a living instrument which must be interpreted in the light of present day conditions (the same approach that Justice Scalia sincerely wished would die in the US context). Finally, the European Court’s use of contextual balancing and proportionality tests in almost every situation is also contrary to Justice Scalia’s rather more categorical jurisprudence. These fundamental methodological differences aside, however, Justice Scalia would probably be surprised that the substantive results that he prefers in the US context are those...