Search: Affective Justice: Book Symposium: A Response

the increasingly broad and deep scope of international law. Others in this symposium have discussed the book’s value in terms of its historical analysis, constitutional interpretation, and its practical value to human rights litigators. As this on-line symposium draws to a close, it is important to note that the Death of Treaty Supremacy opens up new avenues for research. For example, David Stewart observes that “the story of our Constitution is largely one of judicial adaptation and reinterpretation in light of changed circumstances.” In response to the book’s “problem []...

I am very grateful for the opportunity to discuss my book on EJIL: Talk! and Opinio Juris, as am I grateful to the commentators on both blogs for taking the time to read and discuss it. In this introductory post I’ll try to outline the book’s main arguments and themes and my approach generally in analysing a very complex topic. The book is divided into five chapters. The first, introductory chapter sets out the scope and purpose of the whole study. It defines the notion of the extraterritorial application of...

We’re delighted this week to host a discussion of Paul Schiff Berman’s “Global Legal Pluralism: A Jurisprudence of Law Beyond Borders” (Cambridge University Press). Paul is the Dean and Robert Kramer Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School. This is a rich and broadly argued book (Paul confesses to being a “lumper,” I think in the best sense). From the jacket: We live in a world of legal pluralism, where a single act or actor is potentially regulated by multiple legal or quasi-legal regimes imposed by state,...

Thanks so much to the Opinio Juris folks for the opportunity to participate in this wonderful symposium. Ben’s book truly is indispensable — a must-read for all those interested in these important topics. In particular, Ben’s descriptions of the difficult questions, and his narrative of how we got to this unfortunate point with respect to many of them, are thorough, precise, and (most importantly) lucid — which is saying quite a lot when it comes to these debates. I am almost inclined to say that if I had to recommend...

...collapses upon scrutiny, because no Iranian armed attack on Israel had occurred or was imminent at the time Israel launched its bombardment. The well-settled rule under Article 51 (confirmed by the International Court of Justice in Armed Activities on the Territory of the Congo (DRC v. Uganda)) is that the right of self-defense arises only in response to an actual armed attack or, at most, an attack that is truly imminent. Israel’s situation does not meet this criterion. There was “no armed attack by Iran against Israel occurring on June...

...a ‘means-end proportionality’ approach with the focus on restoring state’s defensive capacity, it is possible for a nuclear strike to be lawful, even if not commensurate to anticipated attack. To this end, the NPR implicitly assumes that a limited nuclear strike could be less destructive than a large scale conventional response. The employment of tactical nuclear weapons, which allow for the precise targeting, could be justified as a measure to halt the imminent attack, which, if occurring, would require much more destructive a response. It leaves us though with the...

Professor Osofsky’s response to my article is convincing and her exploration of the gaps in my earlier discussion of climate reparations is welcome — in fact, it is encouraged. The hope in writing an article on climate reparations was to investigate seriously alternate avenues for remedy for the climate vulnerable and encourage creativity across scales, between novel claimants, and for individuals or billions, in careful response to their current and forecasted environment. It is the first brush stroke on a quite large, and perhaps expanding, canvas. What should not be...

...regime fragmentation offers new-found opportunities to link issues and institutions. Karen’s observations in her article make an important contribution to IEL scholarship. I thoroughly enjoyed Karen’s article and appreciated her conclusion about the dynamic nature of MEAs. To be fair in this response, neither of the issues that I’m identifying as gaps are an explicit part of Karen’s well-researched project. In reflecting on the MJIL article, the two analytical gaps for me were 1) a pragmatic explanation of why there has been a profusion of cooperative efforts across treaty bodies,...

book, The Law on the Use of Force: a Feminist Analysis (Routledge, 2011) where I argue: A prescriptive analogy assumes the correlation of domestic legal categories with international legal categories and, therefore, explains international legal justifications for violence by drawing upon domestic legal justifications for violence. In contrast, the conceptual analysis developed in this book does not assume the sameness of international and domestic legal structures instead, it seeks, to expose concepts developed in Western domestic legal orders that are assumed to exist in the international legal system. . ....

and in the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (“the submission of the exercise of the right of self-defence to the conditions of necessity and proportionality is a rule of customary international law.”?) Although time and space do not allow a complete discussion of the concept of proportionality as relates to all the questions raised by Benjamin Davis, Katharine and others, it is our position that the response to the attacks of 11 September 2001 has been...

[Ariel Meyerstein received his J.D. from Boalt Hall (2006) and is currently a PhD candidate, Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. His recent scholarship includes, “Between Law and Culture: Rwanda’s Gacaca and Postcolonial Legality,” 32 Law and Social Inquiry 467-508 (2007), “Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Israel/Palestine: Assessing the Applicability of the Truth Commission Paradigm,” 38 Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 281 (2007), “The Law (and Lawyers) as Enemy Combatant(s),” University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy (forthcoming).] In this reply, I do not want to take on...

Anupam Chander I am grateful to Mark Wu for penning a thoughtful response to some of the ideas in “Trade 2.0.” I am fortunate to have such an expert commentator. Wu agrees with my aims, but worries that the political will may be lacking to effect my proposals. He also offers four other hurdles to implementation. I consider each concern below, beginning (in the interest of easy cross-reference) with the one he labels “first,” and concluding with a response to the political will objection. First, Wu is concerned that GATS...